The First National Bank of Darby from c.1924. The building still stands at 9th and Main Sts. and is a business today.
Note: One Hundred years ago almost every big town in Delaware County had it's own National Bank. From Darby to Clifton Heights and Media to Ridley Park all these towns and others had their own. All of them have merged and been bought out. Darby was no exception.
NEW BANK AND POST OFFICE FOR DARBY BOROUGH
Buildings
Will Represent an Outlay of About $200,000 or More
Preliminary
work was today begun on the erection of a new bank and post office building at
Darby, representing an outlay of about $200,000, including the ground. The new buildings are being erected at the
corner of Ninth and Main Streets, by the First National Bank of Darby, the
contract for their construction having been let to F. L. Hoover & Sons, Incorporated,
of Philadelphia.
The
buildings are to be by far the handsomest in Delaware County’s largest borough
and are destined to mark a new epoch at the junction of the old Darby Road and
the Chester Pike.
The
bank will be erected on the corner now occupied by the drug store of Cloud
& Shinn, and the store adjoining which was just vacated as a meat market by
Richard Purdy. The post office building,
while entirely separate, will join the bank in the rear and will have a
frontage on Ninth Street, occupying the site of Elmer Raab’s old plumbing shop.
While
it has been known for same time past that the bank was to rebuild, the matter
of the new post office was not definitely settled until about ten days ago,
when word was received from First Assistant Postmaster General John H. Bartlett
that the post office department had agreed to a lease on the proposed new
building for a term of five years, beginning July 1, 1922. The post office is at present located in the
office building opposite, built by A. F. Damon, Jr., about nineteen years
ago. This was the site of the first post
office Darby ever had when it was established more than one hundred years ago.
The buildings which are from
plans prepared by Bunting & Shrigley, architects, will be constructed on Indiana
limestone, with tapestry brick trimmings.
The bank will be 40 feet in width and will have a depth of 103
feet. Particularly designed against
thuggery it will be as nearly fireproof and burglar-proof as is possible to
make a banking institution. Both floor
and roof will be of concrete. Four
immense columns extending to the roof will give the front of the building a
most imposing appearance. There will be
two large vaults, one for banking purposes, the other a safe deposit
vault. The second floor, rear will
contain a bookkeeping department, board room and girl employee’s rest room.
An interesting feature of construction
of the buildings lies in the fact that they will be two feet from the line of
the present old structures on Ninth Street, and on the main street front the
pavement will taper from sixteen feet to eight feet, thus straightening out a
very ugly building line, which has long been an eyesore to the town’s business
belt.
The post office building will be
a two story structure, 54 feet in width and extending back
58 feet. The first
floor will be solely for use of the post office department, while the second
floor will be divided into eight offices.
In the basement, there will be two shops in the front. On the north end of the building there will
be an alley; fifteen feet in width where mail trucks may unload.
Upon completion of the post
office building, Cloud & Shinn, druggists will occupy the room at present
occupied by the post office, and while construction work is in progress, will be
located in the corridor of the old post office.
Work of fitting up the corridor for a temporary store is already under
way. Mr. Damon, owner of the latter
building, plans to completely remodel the first floor of the structure.
Druggist Cloud has occupied the
site of the new bank for thirty-five years.
He is building a residence on Lincoln Avenue, Yeadon, which he will
occupy upon completion.
SOME LOCAL HISTORY – The First
National Bank of Darby was first opened for business October 9, 1890, occupying
quarters in the first floor of the old Peoples’ Hall Building at 684 Main
Street. The present bank building at 888
Main Street was occupied for the first time August 4, 1892. Since that time the bank has been enlarged to
twice its original size. When it was
first instituted it was capitalized at $50,000.
It is now capitalized at $100,000 with surplus and profits of about
$166,000. J. Serrill Verlenden,
president of the bank is a son of the first president, WW. Lane Verlenden, who
held that position from the time the bank was organized until his death a year
ago.
The site of the new bank has
been one on which business has been conducted ever since pre-Revolutionary
times. In the early days of the town, it
contained a noted road house called, “The Ship.” This old inn stood at the corner for nearly
one hundred years. It was licensed in
1735 and continued as a licensed house until 1833, when it ceased to exist as a
tavern. Two sister, Tacy and Sidney
Smith kept it from 1804 until 1833.
An old weather beaten sign of a
ship, with a British flag at its mast head which had swung in the
wind for three
quarters of a century, all through the stormy days of the Revolution, was
battered to pieces during the War of 1812 by some men and boys. A new sign with the Stars and Stripes took
its place and continued to swing until the old tavern passed out of existence.
In later years the site was
occupied by two frame buildings, occupied for many years by Hugh P. Lloyd &
Son as a general country store, and later by Charles Worrrall. About fifty years ago, the old buildings were
destroyed by fire during the absence of the family. Three brick stores were erected in their
place, two of them being the buildings owned by the Darby Home Protection
Society. The latter society bought the
property in 1887 after it had again been occupied as a saloon. Two years ago, the site was bought by the
First National Bank.
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