Oneonta’s Wilber Bank, 1908…On It’s Way to A Billion Dollars!
I love this old photograph of Oneonta's Wilber National Bank.
It seems positively quaint that you would walk into a huge city bank like this was and go up to a counter where two gentlemen (sorry, no ladies yet) would greet you at their gilded teller cage and help you do your transaction.
The thing I really like about this image (which is a postcard) is that it listed the bank's assets right on the front for all to see. The year was 1908 and Wilber had $100,000 in capital. Imagine that. I am sure the bank president makes that much alone today.
Just for comparison, Wilber had $100,000 in capital in 1908. When it was acquired by Community Bank in 2010 it listed assets at nearly one billion dollars: $929,000,000 on hand plus $553,000,000 in outstanding loans,.
My how that little two-teller bank did grow!