The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-22
ARTIST COMPLETES
 FINE FRISCO WORK
BIRMINGHAM TRUST AND SAW INGS CO.'S STATELY BUILDING HAS INTERIOR DECORATION THAT RANKS AS HIGH ART.

The already handsome interior of the Birmingham Trust and Savings company s classic building on Twentieth street has ] just been made rarely beautiful by the art of the frescoer.
 When the building was completed the interior was left perfectly white, ex- stained glass of the sky and transom lights and the bronze of the railings and vault Even then it was the most com- plete and the handsomest building in the south used exclusively for banking.
 The work of the painter on the interior seemed like an attempt to "gild refined gold or paint the lily" but the result more than justified the design.
 The idea of the bank officials was to beautify the walls and at the same time to avoid anything approaching the gor- geous or gaudy, fault so easy to com init in the decoration of room so large and lofty. That their ideal has been most happily realized every one who en- ters the building will agree, whether the beholder simply takes in the general effect or as a art critic studies the work in detail. The accomplished artist, Mr. Charles E. Chapman of New York has given us the most successful and elabo- rate design of mural decoration in Bir- mingham, and his work will for many years be source of pleasure to the unnurnbered thousands of people who will visit the Birmingham Trust and Savings company in the course of daily business or as strangers seeing what is worthy of at tention in the city.
 The central idea in the design of MT. Chapman was that the decorations should be classic, in keeping with the classic de- sign of the architecture. All the orna- mental plaster work is treated in old ivory, the paneling in soft grey ornament ed with the Greek Key The large panels of the walls are in Roman red and the spandrels are treated in metallic and gold effects The plasters are in soft gray, in keeping with the base of Tennessee mar ble.
 The offices are treated with rich green on the walls with lighter colors above, and all on a ground of heavy burlap ! The general effect is one of stately ele- gance, admirably in harmony with the inn ] posing architecture. There is richness or coloring in the red panels, but subdued by the light of the gray and ivory into a simplicity that protects the impression as whole from any taint of the gaudy.
 Simultaneously with the completion or these decorations, there came call on the national banks for a statement, the Birmingham Trust and Savings company issiIing A statement at the same time and at the same time as is its invariable rule. The statement is gratifying to the pubic IS it must be to the officers of the bank. It shows that the deposits of the Bir- mingham Trust and Savings company have increased since the last statement on September 9, in little over sixty days. more than $236,OO0. while its avail able cash reserve is greater by over s134OO0.
 The total cash reserve of the bank is 47 per cent of it's deposits, showing 8 posi- tion of strength equal to any banking in- stitution in the country. This statement, in short, shows that the settled policy Of the bank, to keep always in view the in .terest of the depositors, is being maintain ed, while the growth of the deposits testi- fies to the steadily increasing appreciation of the public.