National Bank of Whittier Building

Whittier, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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In uptown Whittier, California, the National Bank of Whittier Building stands as the city's finest surviving example of Beaux Arts architecture. Constructed in 1923 by brothers John and David Parkinson in the Beaux Arts Neoclassical style, the building gained national significance as the location of Richard M. Nixon's first law office in 1938, when he served as Deputy City Attorney. The bank was operated by the Perry family; banker Herman Perry served on the school board and helped finance Nixon's first congressional campaign, while his son Hubert, a Whittier High School contemporary of Nixon's, became a prominent local philanthropist. Now known as Nixon Plaza, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, with a replica of Nixon's office preserved for public viewing at the Whittier Historical Museum.