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!