Built in 1924 as the main office for the expanding Banco Crédito y Ahorro Ponceño bank this building represents one of the last examples of the once popular turn-of-the-century eclectic architecture so common in Ponce after the 1918 earthquake. Banco Crédito was designed and built by Francisco Porrata-Doria, who at the time had recently returned to Puerto Rico after studying engineering at Cornell University and architectural courses at Columbia University. Porrata Doria was one of the island's finest architects, a pioneer in the development of a local modern architecture, and one of the architects responsible for what can be called "Ponce Monumental Architecture", of which Banco Crédito is a good example. Among the directors and officers of this prominent bank were some of the most recognized names in the city of Ponce and Puerto Rico at large, including former Ponce mayor, Ulpiano Colóm.