Harrington news

Harrington US Bank Building

With the renewed interest in the Harrington Revitalization Plan, community members were pleased to see the work being done on the US Bank Building, originally built in 1909 for the First National Bank. The First National Bank was organized in 1908 and located in the Faulding building, directly east across the street with Pres. Harry Ochs, VP Thos H Brewer, Cashier W W Downie and four directors: J J Cameron, Grant McCann, Chas Hegele and T A Hansard. The excavation of their new building was completed in May 1909 and the masons began the rock work on the basement and foundation. The contract for the building was awarded to C M Martin of Spokane; his bid being $6,400. When completed in November 1909 the cost was said to have been $10,000. “The building is 27 X 60 feet, two stories high, is made of pressed brick with concrete trim, has full basement and storage vault besides a reinforced concrete bank vault on first floor.”

The First National Bank became insolvent and closed its doors in 1924. In 1929 the bank building was offered at public auction with its furnishings. Alex Kramer was the highest bidder and he wasted no time moving his dry goods store into the building, although he closed before long. Kramer owned the building until 1943 when the Harrington Church of the Nazarene purchased it for $1,000 and worshipped there until 1968. In 1969 the Old National Bank, located in the Bank Block, remodeled the First National building spending more than $20,000 which included the addition of the new vault. The Old National Bank was renamed US Bank during the 1980s.

The current tellers stated the work on the exterior of the bank building is to protect the structure and that it might also be changing the blue paint to a beige tone making it more like the original look. Danny Lanis, one of the workers from A Plus Masonry of Spokane said that they are working on the east and south sides of the building, cleaning and replacing broken bricks. Celeste Miller of the Harrington Historic Preservation Commission said that the bank building could be placed on the list of historic buildings and that she appreciates that they continue to preserve the building. US Bank replaced the roof in the recent past. The west end of the building which receives the brunt of the heat in the summer and the winds out of the southwest is also showing damages, and it is anticipated that US Bank will continue to follow the advertisement of Karl Harder, 1980 manager of ONB Harrington branch, who said: “Let’s take care of tomorrow... together.”