For over eighty years I have tread these steps.
To my knowledge, without notifying at least two box holders,by December 31 PNC will have closed the vault in the Park Avenue building. Indeed the bank interior is already undergoing modification and with the exception of a few desks in the front all the left side of the lobby has undergone dismantlization. The chairman's office and the adjacent one. which were probably in the next building have been sealed off with a new wall.
I was told that the bank intends to seal off the stairs to the vault area and construct upper floors in the space. This would be logical considering the cost of heating the present voluminous area.
I can not comprehend why PNC would under go renovation and new construction expenses if there is any validity to the proposed plan to include that block to Madison Street in the the latest incarnation of redevelopment plans for the train station area. Even if they exist and have been presented to the Planning Board the project is moot given the economy.
While, I can shed a tear for the passing of another memorial landmark of my very young childhood, visiting the vault with my parents , I am not surprised. As long as almost 50 years ago the United National planned to close the building and move into a new structure that was to be the cornerstone of the Madison-Park redevelopment. The riots of 68 and the rapid change in the city demography let to the abandoning that plan and the building in Bridgwater which I understand it too is just a shell of its former self.
About a decade ago, if my memory is not distorted, one of the many "going to save the school system" superintendents concocted a plan that the system would be properly impressive if it bought that building for the Board offices. The bank would move across the street into the old poorly used State Trust Co. building. Fortunately wiser heads short circuited that costly to the tax payer hair brain scheme.
Gone with the rest of the glory that was once hallmark of the Queen City. "The Queen is dead, long live the Queen"
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