Remember when you had to go into the bank building to get money? Here's the Butler Bank lobby in 1907. This was their first facility in the Hall Building at Second and Oak. In 1924 they moved into their grand building at 3rd and Oak, only to go out of business in the Great Depression.
Category: [Downtown Hood River]
Tags: 1900s bank Butler_Bank Oak_Street
No online banking or computer print outs.
So....in 1907, what was actually required of a bank teller to make note of his transactions?
l.e. on 19th February 2015 @ 9:28am
You mean besides cursive handwriting, right?! ;-)
spinsur on 19th February 2015 @ 9:46am
Looks like "Dead Lobster" wallpaper! Lovely..... Notice they were not "Tellers", but "Cashiers"
judy on 19th February 2015 @ 10:56am
Cashiers/Tellers had big ledgers for tracking transactions, which were transcribed by hand into account ledgers by clerk/bookkeepers. There were primitive comptometers available, which were cranked. In 1969 I had a departmental budget position with the old PNB, and got the first four-function electronic calculator in the department. It was about 12 inches square with a nixie tube display, weighed about 12 or 13 pounds, and cost $800 in 1969 dollars. It was a joy to be able to get rid of the old, slow, and noisy mechanical Friden.
Jerry Larsen on 19th February 2015 @ 11:41am
I will stick with "teller". It is easier to write in cursive than "cashier".
Since I know I would forget who had just come in to the bank and who had just given me money, what did they write down during a transaction? Did they have the ledger right there by the window?
Was there carbon paper back then?
Were there checks in 1907 or was every transaction cash?
I looked up Friden. Interesting biography.
http://www.rauck.net/friden/History-01.htm
l.e. on 19th February 2015 @ 12:04pm
They had checks back then.
Jeffrey Bryant on 19th February 2015 @ 5:14pm
How and in what year did the county acquire the Butler Bank building?
arlen sheldrake on 20th February 2015 @ 6:25am
I would love to know what the colors were in those two different wall papers. I wonder if they "fought," But Victorian era I guess. Like that old clock there on the back wall.
Charlott on 20th February 2015 @ 7:18am
Thanks so much for posting this. I have an old canvas bank bag, from this bank.
Lesa on 15th April 2015 @ 12:15pm
A history of the early banks in Hood River can be found at:
http://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83009939/1910-04-13/ed-1/seq-1/
Jeffrey Bryant on 8th August 2015 @ 8:38am
I found an interesting Gold Coin Promissory note for the Butler Banking Co in a book in Cottonwood Az. . It is blank but says " $_____ Hood River Oregon______________192___
either of us promise to pay to the order of ___________________ AT THE OFFICE OF THE BUTLER BANKING COMPANY hood river Oregon_________DOLLARS in Gold Coin of United States of America [ETC]... please contact me if interested. it is Very Good condition. might be nice addition to your museum. - Jeff
jeff P on 27th March 2017 @ 5:46pm