Peyser Building (Security Savings and Commercial Bank): This office/bank building illustrates a growing trend of banks in the 1920s to combine banking quarters with rentable space.

The Peyser Building/Security Savings and Commercial Bank is a five-story office/bank building constructed between 1928 and 1929. Designed by notable local architect George N. Ray, the Peyser Building reflects a reduced Classical Revival style of architecture that was common for small commercial and bank buildings of the period. The building is one of a collection of 1920s office buildings and financial institutions surrounding McPherson Square that illustrates the northern limit of the city’s financial district as it spread north from lower 15th Street NW near the Treasury building. It abuts the Southern Railway Building, another historic landmark of the Financial Historic District.

Constructed in 1929 on the site of a former dwelling, the Peyser Building was built as a combination branch bank by and for the Security Savings and Commercial Bank of Washington, DC, and as a speculative office building intended to cater to the growing financial business interests in and around McPherson Square.

Established in 1913, the Security Savings and Commercial Bank built its headquarters and main bank at 9th and G streets, NW, where over the next decade it grew to become the largest savings bank in the city. At its establishment, the bank’s Board of Directors consisted of a number of prominent businessmen, including Julius I. Peyser after whom the K Street building was named.

DC Inventory: June 28, 2012

National Register: September 10, 2012

Within Financial Historic District