A reader asked when the current Columbia County Farmers National Bank building on Market Street was built. We have told you a number of times that John G. McHenry organized the bank in 1902. At that time the bank was located in a frame building on the east side of Main Street next to the building housing the present Kozy Korner restaurant. The site is now a municipal parking lot. The Columbia County National Bank was chartered July 3, 1902, and John G. McHenry served as president for many years. This bank was destroyed in the July 4, 1910, Benton fire.
Less than a month after the fire, the board of directors of the Columbia County National Bank made a trip to Hughesville, Muncy and Montgomery, looking at the bank buildings of those towns in order to come to come to some conclusion as to the style of building that they would erect. The board of directors consisted of John G. McHenry, S.B. Karns, C.F. Seeley, J.B. McHenry, Frank Mather, Alfred McHenry, W.L. Yorks, Charles Dildine and George B. Hummer.
By mid-January, 1911, the plans and specifications for the new bank were complete and February 6 was set as the date for submission of bid packages. Construction was due to begin "as soon as the weather permits." The building would set on the former McHenry estate. The specification called for the bank to be built of brick with stone trimming. It would be two stories, with the exterior of the building about 40x62 feet.
The bank "arrangements" would be unique and modern, with room for a ladies waiting, a retiring room, the cashier's public office and president's private office, with a directors' room in the rear together with a spacious working floor. The main floor was to be elliptical in form with the lobby tiled and the remainder of the interior in mahogany. The second floor was "given over to rental." The building had a heating plant and all modern conveniences.
A contract was awarded to the Berwick Lumber & Supply Company for $8,156.79 to build a "handsome" new building in the location where it is now. The bid did not include the bank partitions of the first floor and the furnishings, plumbing fixtures, finished hardware, heating, light fixtures, cement floor in basement and the vault doors. All of these were awarded under separate contacts. The Benton Argus noted that the "bank plans, as previously stated, contemplate a structure that will be a credit to the community in which it will be located and to the bank as well.
The Farmers National Bank of Orangeville, established in 1917, later merged with the Benton bank and the Columbia County Farmers National Bank was created.
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