E.S. & A. Bank

Designed by: Leonard Terry. Chapel addition by Hugh & Arthur Peck.

Constructed: 1872–73 by W. Porter with

Style: Gothic Revival with Italian-flavoured influences

139 Nelson Place is one of Williamstown’s most distinctive nineteenth-century buildings. Leonard Terry, renowned for designing Victorian banks and Anglican church buildings, created a structure that combined commercial purpose with ecclesiastical character.

The building's red-brick façade is a striking feature, showcasing two gabled bays and pointed arched (ogee) windows, enhanced by intricate trefoil and quatrefoil motifs, stone tracery, and cast-iron cresting along the roofline.

The sharply pitched slate roof and its decorative detailing impart a strong vertical presence that sets it apart from the more subdued commercial buildings along Nelson Place. The Cast-iron cresting embellishes the ridge and gable peaks, while wrought iron balustrading enhances the cantilevered balcony at the first floor and the window grouping at ground level.

Label molds, terminating in bosses, accompany all openings, with reveals that are splayed. Twin double doors in each flanking bay, set under Gothic arches, lead into the banking chamber and residential quarters. Originally built with ten rooms, this architectural gem expanded to fourteen by 1893, reflecting its growing importance over time.

In 1986, a heritage study highlighted the building as an “uncommon departure from accepted classical revival stylism in contemporary bank architecture.” Its unique appearance often leads visitors to mistake it for a church, particularly when viewed from the ferry.

This resemblance became even more fitting when the building was transformed into St. Nicholas’s Mission to Seamen’s Church in 1943.

Leonard Terry's architectural influence extends beyond this building, as he also designed the Williamstown.