Benton County State Bank Building

The Benton County State Bank, a two-story building of brick masonry with stone trim in a simplified Richardsonian vein, is significant to Corvallis and Benton County, in part, because it has had the longest banking life of any structure in the county. It was in continuous use for its original purpose from its opening day on July 25, 1907, to its closure as a banking house in 1957. It had been known as the Benton County National Bank, Benton County State Bank, First Corvallis Bank; Corvallis Branch, First National Bank of Oregon, and Citizens Bank of Corvallis. The history of the building is bound up in the growth period of local and statewide banking interests. The bank replaced the ruins of a burned saloon building and its construction was intended to inhibit fires and reflect the permanency of banking institutions. It was the bank chosen to illustrate its kind in a 1912 promotional publication designed to attract more settlement in Benton County.

Archie J. Johnson, president and builder of the Benton County State Bank, was the scion of an Oregon pioneer family, a native of Marion County. The Benton County Republican carried an advertisement for the new bank in its August 8, 1907 issue describing it as "the hustling bank of Corvallis". Besides banking, Johnson was active in an array of commercial interests, including agriculture, stock raising (goats, short horn, Hereford and Jersey cattle, and Hampshire Down Sheep), real estate, general merchandising, city planning, wool and mohair buying and milling, and lumber.

Johnson was a national bank examiner for the northwest district, which encompassed Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. He had been mayor and councilman of Scio, Oregon, and a councilman and mayor of Corvallis 1906-1907. He served as State senator from Benton County from 1894 to 1924 and was noted for the "Johnson Good Roads" bill. For two years he was president of the Corvallis Commercial Club. He was chairman of Benton County's War Council and chaired all war drives. As a consequence, the Benton County State Bank Building became the center of war bond drives during the First and Second World Wars.

Lester G. Oehler, a Federal Bankruptcy Judge, located his office in the bank building during the 1950s. In addition, several other locally prominent attorneys made the second floor of the Benton County State Bank Building their headquarters. These included McFadden, later a county judge, Arthur Clark, Karl Huston, John D. Thomas, and C. C. Carlson. The list is said to read like a who's who of the legal profession in Benton County.

Other businesses to occupy the building included a drug store, a shoe repair shop, a barber shop, and Turkish baths, which were operated in the basement. The upstairs contained numerous vacant offices but was accessible only by one small staircase off the mezzanine which ran across the east wall of the building. The rooms had been altered, hallways added, doorways changed and added, staircases and skylights removed. A defunct steam heating system and a defunct gas lighting system existed. The lighting system had been changed several times.

The new owners removed the awnings and panels from all windows and cleaned the exterior to reveal the original buff brick and quarry stone. The night deposit vault was removed from the Second Street entrance, and this entrance became the new main entry to the first floor. The corner bay entry became a window used as a solarium. The new window is an insert, rather than an irreversible installation, however. Various sections of the main floor were elevated to the original height of the banking area. The side entrance on Madison Avenue became the main access to the offices located on the second floor. The end bays of either facade were redesigned to continue the pattern of Roman-arched windows. An elevator in the Madison Avenue lobby space ensures the rentability of second-level offices. Two staircases were installed according to code, on the east and west walls. They do not obstruct the design of the building. Ground-level alley windows had to be closed, as did second-level north windows. (State Appeals Board upheld the closure). The second-story hallway was restored with wainscoting and molding. All hallway office doors are original, and most contain glass. In several instances, the new Uniform Building Code required wire glass to be installed where glass replacement was needed. Three original skylights were once again made functional. Existing lavatories were modernized, and ceilings dropped to allow space for a new heating system, air conditioning, and drop-in lighting. Where such a ceiling would obstruct decorative ceiling molding, that ceiling area was left intact.
Lighting fixtures close in style to some broken ones found in the building were installed in two rooms and part of the common area. A coffee area, complete with old Newel Post was created in an otherwise unusable space beside the second-floor elevator. This rehabilitation of the former Benton County State Bank received a first-place honor during the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce Civic Beautification Awards Banquet in 1978.

The building presently is home to "The Night Deposit" Restaurant, which leases the entire ground floor and mezzanine. Second-floor offices are leased to a realtor and a software computer firm.

Modernistic brass doors obtained from the original U. S. Bank of Springfield (Oregon) building are now the main doors to "The Night Deposit". A circular shield with intertwined, gold-leafed initials of the Benton County State Bank used on the Madison Avenue facade is a facsimile of the historic Benton County State Bank logogram. Large, cast metal plaques reading "Benton County State Bank, established 1907" were originally banded to the granite columns of the corner bay, and they have been returned to the building for decorative use. Blank stock certificates are displayed in "The Night Deposit" Restaurant. These were stored in the attic by the attorney who handled the bankruptcy cases for the respective corporate businesses.

The following account of banking developments in Benton County was given ca. 1957 by Jack Porter, former vice-president of Benton County State Bank.

"Job and Hamilton formed the first bank known in Corvallis in 1886, without the benefit of State or Federal regulation. It was located on the southwest corner of Second and Madison Streets, at the present site of the United States National Bank. This first bank operated on an 'overdraft' loan style. All loans were heavily dependent upon the success of the Central of Oregon Railroad, which at that time was active in a Corvallis to Toledo right-of-way. This bank was very loosely organized and would not be tolerated in today's banking patterns.

Mr. M. S. Woodcock, a general store operator in Monroe, established a second bank in Corvallis in 1887. Mr. Woodcock chose the name Benton County Bank and located it at the southwest corner of Second and Jefferson Streets, the present location of Birks Appliance Store. The bank was capitalized at $50,000, with Walter Pete, a Eugene banker, moving here to become a cashier. As Woodcock operated this bank, he also maintained an interest in the Corvallis Gazette, a newspaper, and a general store, with Mr. Baldwin of Portland.

Business proved prosperous for Benton County Bank and in 1890, Mr. Woodcock, with Walter Pete as cashier, obtained a national charter for the bank. At the same time, the Job and Hamilton Bank failed, and Woodcock assumed their Second and Madison Street location. Incidentally, Job and Hamilton's bank failure was due to a country-wide panic and depression. Depositors of Job and Hamilton suffered heavy losses.

The Willamette Valley Bank was formed in 1897 by Messrs. Leese and Scarth with $10,000 capital. Initial deposits approached $100,000, and the bank was located in what is today the Julian Hotel. This was a privately held bank, and stock ownership remained in Leese and Scarth's hands.

The Benton County National Bank was next on the scene. Formed in 1907, with Mr. A. J. Johnson, a recent national bank examiner, serving as president. Shortly after the formation, this bank attained $113,000 of deposit in their location at Second and Madison Streets. This northeast corner site remained active until 1957. This bank was formed in the days of double liability, meaning stockholders would be held liable for losses of the bank beyond their capital stock holdings. Loans in this era were tied closely to the local economy and suffered tremendous fluctuation.

Thomas Whitehorn, with Victor Moses and A. A. Schramn, formed the Corvallis State Bank in 1913. This bank represented well-named founders, and its reputation for stability was county-wide. This was in a banking era in which gold and silver were used as payment. These banks even had off-street parking, in the form of livery stables, located close by each banking office. These livery stables were at the present site of the Shell station on Second and Jefferson, the present site of the Oregon State and Whiteside Theaters.

Benton County National Bank, for reasons known only to the organization, reformed from a national charter to a state charter to the name Benton County State Bank in 1910. Mr. J. L. Gault assumed the role of cashier, and the bank continued to serve local needs.

Each of the aforementioned banks, with the exception of Job and Hamilton, weathered the recession of the early 1920s and early 1930s and provided very amply for the financial requests at the local level. At this time, deposits in First National Bank were $1,600,000, the Benton County State Bank at $1,100,000, and the Corvallis State Bank at $600,000.

The Corvallis State Bank was purchased by The First National Bank of Corvallis in 1930. This merger made the First National Bank of Corvallis larger than its sole competitor, The Benton County State Bank. Both banks continued to show steady growth through increases in logging activity and farm production benefiting the Benton and Linn County area. These were times of steady population increase and general development.

In December 1940, the First National Bank of Corvallis was purchased by The United States National Bank of Portland. This purchase came after a long negotiation with both banks involved. This change ended the Woodcock family banking activity which was first established in Corvallis in 1887.

The Benton County State Bank remained the only independent bank in Corvallis until 1946 when it was purchased by The First National Bank of Portland. It remained an affiliated bank of The First National until 1950 when its name changed to First Corvallis Bank. Later, the complete change resulted in the name common today, Corvallis Branch, The First National Bank of Oregon.

In late 1957 when The Corvallis Branch, The First National Bank of Portland, moved into its new building at 3rd and Monroe Streets, its old building served as some degree of incentive for a local group to form a new independent bank. This was to be known as Citizens Bank of Corvallis. This newly formed independent bank showed moderate growth and filled a need comprised of people demanding independent banking for some reason or another.

Today, the three banks of Corvallis enjoy increased business levels month after month. All banks provide complete banking services to all people in the community. Each of the banks is a firm part of the community."