News-Record.com

Good sculptors could probably pull it off. They could make the nose more narrow and longer, the face leaner and more lengthy. They could add a beard and bushy eyebrows.

Presto, the bust of Thomas Jefferson on the 17-story Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co. building would become Abe Lincoln.

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Jefferson Standard Life merged with its subsidiary, Pilot Life Insurance Co., in the 1980s to become Jefferson-Pilot.

J-P was recently bought by Lincoln Financial Group. Based in Philadelphia, Lincoln uses Abe's profile in its logo.

Lincoln Financial Group signs and the Lincoln profile now decorate the still relatively new 20-story Jefferson-Pilot building at West Market and North Greene.

The building connects to the old Jefferson Standard building at Market and Elm. A Lincoln sign also appears on J-P's printing complex on North Church Street. No signs have been erected on the old Jefferson Standard Life Building.

The Jefferson-Pilot building was completed in 1990 to create room for the former Pilot Life Insurance employees, who moved downtown from Pilot's Sedgefield headquarters to join Jefferson Standard employees.

Sol Kovach, a Lincoln Financial spokesman, said both the new J-P and old Jefferson Life buildings should now be called Lincoln Financial buildings.

But he doesn't expect Jefferson's bust to topple. Nor does he expect the "Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Co." engraved above the arched entrance to be covered. History protects them both.

The Jefferson Standard building, opened in 1923 and once the tallest structure between Philadelphia and Atlanta, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

To remain on the register, the building must not be altered significantly. The National Park Service, which administers the national register program, likely would frown on any attempt to remove the Jefferson bust or the Jefferson Standard name. They are original to the building.

Besides, keeping old names on buildings when new businesses move in has become a tradition in downtown.

The South Elm Street building housing Triad Stage has a "W" mounted at the top. It stands for Ward. Montgomery Ward department store was there until about 50 years ago.

In the same block, the name Kress still appears prominently on an art deco building, even though the dime store moved out in the mid-1970s. A social-conference center, an architectural firm and a public relations company now operate there, and a bar is expected to open soon on the first floor.

The group that owns the building still calls it the Kress.

Engraved on the front and side of the 13-story Guilford Building at South Elm and Washington streets is the name Greensboro Bank & Trust Co. The office building opened in 1927 with the bank as anchor tenant. The bank failed in 1933 during the Great Depression and never reopened, although other banks did occupy the space.

The lingering question is what about the Elm and Market intersection, where Greensboro was started in 1808. What will it be called?

Until 1918, the intersection was known as Courthouse Square. The county courthouse stood where the Jefferson Standard Life building is now.

When Jefferson bought property to build its high-rise headquarters, county commissioners moved the courthouse two blocks west on West Market Street, where it still stands.

After that, Market and Elm became known as Jefferson Square.

Long-time Greensboro residents still call it that.

Should it now be Lincoln Square? Seems logical.