City News
Fort Worth Flashback: FWNB collection captures our city’s history
Posted Dec. 16, 2012
In 1873, Thomas A. Tidball and John B. Wilson established one of the first private banks in Fort Worth. The following year, Major K. M. Van Zandt, Major J. J. Jarvis and John Peter Smith purchased controlling interest. In 1884, the bank received a charter as Fort Worth National Bank.
The first location was a two-story building at 109 W. Weatherford St. Over the years, the bank built or occupied buildings at Main and First, Seventh and Main and finally Fifth and Throckmorton.
After 1974, the bank was sold and became known as Texas American Bancshares, then Team Bank in the 1980s and later Bank One in 1995.
A collection of memorabilia, scrapbooks and photos were donated to the Fort Worth Library in 1994 by the National Bank/Texas American Bank Retired Employees Association under the leadership of Joe Baldridge, a former general manager. The collection consists of 25 boxes of materials and 291 mounted photographs divided into 12 series.
This photo from the collection shows the FWNB lobby decked out with evergreen boughs and a giant tree for the holiday season.
The Fort Worth Library has approximately 10,000 items pertaining to the history of Fort Worth and Tarrant County. These items include city and county government documents, newspapers, directories, cemetery association records, maps as well as popular and scholarly books written by local authors or about local subjects. To learn more, call 817-392-7740 or email the Genealogy, History and Archives Section.
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