Girard Trust Building

Art by: Chris Hytha

Story by: Mark Houser

Stephen Girard was one of the richest banking tycoons in American history, so the Philadelphian’s name held a natural appeal for financial institutions. The Girard Life Insurance, Annuity and Trust Company, formed five years after its namesake’s death, erected one of the city’s first highrises on the northeast corner of Broad and Chestnut.

In 1908, the truncated Girard Trust fittingly relocated to shorter headquarters — a two-story domed marble temple they built across the street. Eventually outgrowing that, they brought in the country’s preeminent architectural firm to design this tower, a marble-sheathed Neoclassical extension of their pantheon replica. A third skyscraper built next door in 1973, initially called Three Girard and later One Meridian Plaza, had to be demolished after it was gutted by a fire that also shut down the older highrise.

In 2000, the two marble Girard buildings reopened as a Ritz-Carlton, the city’s third. The first one still stands two blocks south on Broad Street; its owner built it out of spite when his wife was reprimanded for lighting a cigarette in the Bellevue-Stratford.