DOVER—
Many of you living in Dover can remember banking at the Merchants National or Strafford Savings Banks, and remember when there was a bank on the corner of Washington and Locust Streets called Dover Co-operative Bank. Those were days when banking was simple and everyone knew your name.
When kids turned in empty bottles and saved nickels and dimes in a special metal bank, they would go to the bank teller for a key to open and deposit the contents into a savings account book that you carried home with your empty bank, ready to be filled again.
Woodman Institute Museum trustee Thom Hindle and Federal Savings Bank (formerly Dover Co-Op) have prepared a special exhibit that represents those old days of banking. Sponsored by Federal Savings Bank, items from the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection will be on display at the Woodman Museum throughout the 2011 season.
Remember the Hopalong Cassidy Savings Club of the 1950s? You received pins that represented different levels of savings. Tenderfoot, Wrangler, Bronc Buster and Trail Boss were some of the pins given out. You had a small bank that was a bust of Hoppy and coins would be inserted through a hole in his hat. Maybe you received a cardboard coin holder in the shape of a candy cane at Christmas or an Easter Bunny filled with dimes. Did you ever receive a nice mechanical lead pencil or a wood ruler from the bank, usually in celebration of an anniversary? Well these and many more pieces of banking memorabilia now on display should bring back fond memories.
Dover Co-operative was located in the Walker Block on Washington Street next to Robbins Auto. It was a three-story building until 1954, when the third floor was removed. That became Dover Federal Savings.
Merchants National Bank was located on the corner of Third Street and Central Avenue, now Baldface Books. Strafford Banks erected what would be called the “fortress of finance” in 1895 on the corner at Central Square. Strafford was established in 1804 near Tuttle Square.
Gone are the savings books and metal banks shaped like famous people, horses, cars, toy cash registers and buildings, replaced by drive-up windows, automatic teller machines and on-line banking. However, museum visitors can take a step back in time this season by viewing a display of these long-gone banking artifacts from our childhood.
The Woodman Institute Museum is located at 182 Central Avenue in Dover and is open Wednesday-Sunday 12:30-4:30 (except holidays). Call 742-1038 to reserve a group tour or visit www.woodmaninstitutemuseum.org.
Photo caption: The Woodman Institute Museum will host a special exhibit throughout the 2011 season featuring historic banking artifacts courtesy the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection. (Courtesy photo)
Many of you living in Dover can remember banking at the Merchants National or Strafford Savings Banks, and remember when there was a bank on the corner of Washington and Locust Streets called Dover Co-operative Bank. Those were days when banking was simple and everyone knew your name.
When kids turned in empty bottles and saved nickels and dimes in a special metal bank, they would go to the bank teller for a key to open and deposit the contents into a savings account book that you carried home with your empty bank, ready to be filled again.
Woodman Institute Museum trustee Thom Hindle and Federal Savings Bank (formerly Dover Co-Op) have prepared a special exhibit that represents those old days of banking. Sponsored by Federal Savings Bank, items from the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection will be on display at the Woodman Museum throughout the 2011 season.
Remember the Hopalong Cassidy Savings Club of the 1950s? You received pins that represented different levels of savings. Tenderfoot, Wrangler, Bronc Buster and Trail Boss were some of the pins given out. You had a small bank that was a bust of Hoppy and coins would be inserted through a hole in his hat. Maybe you received a cardboard coin holder in the shape of a candy cane at Christmas or an Easter Bunny filled with dimes. Did you ever receive a nice mechanical lead pencil or a wood ruler from the bank, usually in celebration of an anniversary? Well these and many more pieces of banking memorabilia now on display should bring back fond memories.
Dover Co-operative was located in the Walker Block on Washington Street next to Robbins Auto. It was a three-story building until 1954, when the third floor was removed. That became Dover Federal Savings.
Merchants National Bank was located on the corner of Third Street and Central Avenue, now Baldface Books. Strafford Banks erected what would be called the “fortress of finance” in 1895 on the corner at Central Square. Strafford was established in 1804 near Tuttle Square.
Gone are the savings books and metal banks shaped like famous people, horses, cars, toy cash registers and buildings, replaced by drive-up windows, automatic teller machines and on-line banking. However, museum visitors can take a step back in time this season by viewing a display of these long-gone banking artifacts from our childhood.
The Woodman Institute Museum is located at 182 Central Avenue in Dover and is open Wednesday-Sunday 12:30-4:30 (except holidays). Call 742-1038 to reserve a group tour or visit www.woodmaninstitutemuseum.org.
Photo caption: The Woodman Institute Museum will host a special exhibit throughout the 2011 season featuring historic banking artifacts courtesy the Thom and Mira Hindle Dover Collection. (Courtesy photo)
