Banking Your Shot

What Do You Think You're Looking At? #171

This week, like last, I’ve got another everyday building, in a nondescript shopping center in Herndon, Virginia, which you would probably never suspect of having had a past life at all. It is, as you can see, a Starbucks with a drive-thru. (And a lot of cars lined up—I walked by there in the morning, not long after I’d brewed my own very nice coffee at home).

It looks like a coffee shop.

But here it is, only a few years ago:

And all it really did was lose its mansard-ish roof and, interestingly, its covered drive-thru:

I guess those tall, slat-like windows are more of a “bank” feature than a “coffee shop” feature, but they’re not distinctive enough to make the new use feel odd. Though it’s got nothing on this guy in suburban Alexandria:

I can’t find any interior photos of the old bank, but I wonder if the counter is in the same spot? And I wonder where the vault was? Possibly in the back, to the right of the counter in the first interior image?

Someone on social media told me once—so they might have been wrong—that it’s very expensive to remove the old vaults from banks, which can hinder the structures’ reuse as new businesses. I’ve also heard of old bank buildings with new tenants with the vault still in there!

While we’re on the subject, here was a bank in my hometown of Flemington, New Jersey:

And here it is today:

So I guess it’s not that hard!

I’m curious, now, whether somewhere there’s a building that began as a bank/coffee shop, then became the other one of those two, and then switched back to its original use. Gotta start looking.

One more little thing: out behind the Herndon Starbucks, I spotted this little pond with a fountain, which was largely hidden from the road. It’s kind of hidden altogether, yet it’s lovely. There’s beauty and interest everywhere.

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Related Reading:

A Magnificent Liquor Store in High Bridge, NJ

Taking Preservation Into Their Own Hands

Under The Hood In The Neighborhood

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