Farmington State Bank Building

320 Third Street

The Farmington State Bank Building is a one-story brick commercial building located on the main commercial thoroughfare in downtown Farmington. The Farmington State Bank building is eligible for Heritage Landmark designation because it embodies the distinctive characteristics of the Neoclassical Revival style and is a notable local example of the early twentieth-century Classical Revival mode in commercial architecture.

It is also historically significant for its association with the broad pattern of commercial development and banking in downtown Farmington. This historic building housed the Farmington State Bank from 1910 until 1926. Construction of the new bank building coincided with a returning wave of national prosperity following the brief but severe “banker’s panic” of 1907. A succession of good harvests during the early 1900’s stimulated Farmington’s business community, and the rising confidence in the economy helped to promote increased consumption of consumer goods and the growth of the town’s commercial banks. Nationally and locally, the period from 1910 to 1920 witnessed an extraordinary building boom (probably the greatest in U.S. history) and the 1920’s saw the spectacular development of the automobile. At the same time, there was steady shift of population from rural areas to urban communities: Farmington’s population jumped from 733 in 1900 to 1,449 by 1920. The number of home mortgages and personal savings accounts increased nearly four-fold between the beginning of World War I and the Great Depression. This was also the start of the modern era in government regulation of banks, with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and the Intermediate Credits Act of 1923 establishing the Federal Reserve system.
In January 1926, at the height of the “Roaring Twenties” boom, the Farmington State Bank closed its doors. The bank property was subsequently acquired by the First National Bank of Farmington (founded in 1894), which had been formerly located in the Exchange Bank Building on the corner of Third and Oak. The First National Bank successfully weathered the economic collapse of the Great Depression (1929 to 1935) - it was one of the first banks in the state to reopen without restriction following the Bank Holiday of March, 1933 - and the venerable institution rode the wave of postwar prosperity. The bank’s expansion, coupled with the business community’s changing perceptions of downtown Farmington’s commercial prospects, however, caused the bank to move out of the building in 1966.
Designation on 09/04/01