First National Bank in Fleetwood

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The First National Bank in Fleetwood is a three-story red brick building at Main and Franklin Street in Fleetwood, Berks County, built in 1898 in a Late Victorian and Renaissance Revival style.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2005 under criteria A and C, with local significance in commerce and architecture, and its significance runs from 1919 to 1954, reflecting its 1919-1921 remodeling into a bank.

Physical character

The brick and stone building rests on a stone foundation under a metal roof. Remodeled in 1919, it gained a monumental stone front with a keystone arch and Ionic pilasters, plus a marble-floored banking room with bronze teller wickets. Later work added a 1966 drive-through addition, a 1980s entrance vestibule, and a 1986 northeast elevator, plus banking-room updates in 1952 and 1993.

Historical context

The building housed the Kutz Brothers store and hosiery mill from 1898 to 1919. The First National Bank of Fleetwood, founded in 1907, bought the building in 1919 and moved into its remodeled space in 1921. The bank did not open during the Bank Holiday of March 6, 1933, and Harry C. Ulrich was appointed its conservator that year; it reopened in 1934 as the First National Bank in Fleetwood.