The Barnes Citizens Building is located in the heart of downtown Decatur, Illinois at 236-250 North Water Street. While referred to in a singular form, the building is actually three separate entities that are all connected or attached. Like the five boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and Manhattan that come together to form the City of New York, the Barnes Citizens Building is comprised of a 5-story building, a 12-story tower and a multi-level garage.

Of the three, the 5-story building was the first to be built. The building was erected in 1910 by the small, but growing Citizens National Bank of Decatur. The bank itself first opened its doors in 1883 and was operated from a room in downtown Decatur until 1889. During the years between 1889 and 1910, the bank had actually built and occupied its own building, but the ever-increasing business again created the need for more space. In 1910, the 5-story building was erected and the Citizens National Bank moved for a second, yet final, time.

Visitors to the building today will no longer find a Citizens National Bank located in the building, but they will find its successor. In 1983, the bank merged with Midwest Financial Group which, in 1989, became a part of First of America Bank. Recently, First of America Bank was sold to the building’s current banking tenant - National City Bank.

When the 5-story building was constructed, it did not occupy an entire city block. For 20 years after the Citizens National Bank moved into its new building, it shared the block with the four-story Masonic Lodge Temple. In 1927, the Masonic Lodges in the city, and their affiliates, moved to a new location and the second of the three Barnes Citizens Building structures was soon to be built.

The credit for the idea of constructing a modern office building on the site of the old Masonic Lodge Temple is credited to a trustee of the Masonic Temple Association who had been given the responsibility of selling the building. He and others interested in the project became sponsors of the office building project under the name of the Citizens Building Corp., a syndicate of Decatur, Monticello and Chicago businessmen.

The architects chosen for the building were the renowned Chicago firm of Hollibard & Root. Their plans called for a 12-story $900,000, fireproof modern tower with at least 300 office rooms and space on the main floor for stores and shops. Three floors were to be specially equipped for doctors, dentists and other professionals. The 12-story building, still Decatur’s tallest building, was ready for occupancy by September 1, 1930. Tenants included about two dozen doctors, dentists, attorneys and a few businesses.

Finally, in 1962, the four-story parking garage, the third structure of the three, was built at a cost of $500,000. Connected to both the 5-story and 12-story buildings, the garage opened on July 15, 1962. Its construction with its ground floor drive-up teller windows necessitated the closing of one street and the demolition of a partial city block. While the teller windows have disappeared, the garage still serves as Decatur’s only covered parking facility attached to an office building.

This brief history is a distillation of an article compiled and written by Paul Osborne, Editor and Publisher of the Decatur Tribune Weekly. The full article, "The Citizens Bank, Citizens Building Have Dominated Downtown Most of Century", can be found in the March 24, 1999 issue of the Decatur Tribune Weekly. Paul’s kind permission to use his article for the purposes of this website is greatly appreciated and peanuts will be left out for Sparky.