Mural Depicts History of Lansdale

Historic Lansdale has been taken to new heights recently.

Walk into the Wachovia Bank on West Main Street in Lansdale – which will be come Wells Fargo Bank on April 16 – and you’ll find the Lansdale Athletic Association football team from 1894 staring down at you, including football pioneer Amos Alonzo Stagg.

There’s also the Lehigh Valley transit trolley and the Montgomery Traction Company trolley captured through the lens at Susquehanna Avenue and West Main Street in 1902. In the background is the First National Bank of Lansdale.

Coincidentally, that is the same location where these pictures are now featured, as part of a mural dedicated to Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The mural was installed March 15.

These murals are part of a corporate plan for Wells Fargo to show its dedication to the communities in which their banks are located nationally.

“It’s been deliberate of the two companies that customer impact is minimized,” said branch manager Tim Curran, a resident of Towamencin. “We want our customers to know we will remain loyal. The name will change, but it’s the same people.”

Wells Fargo, Curran said, is about community involvement.

“This is something Wells Fargo has done for years,” he said, “but it’s particularly important because of the history of Lansdale and the length of time this branch has been here in one form or another.”

The bank has remained as such since it opened in 1864 as Lansdale National Bank, according to Lansdale Historical Society President Dick Shearer.

“It’s the oldest business in town,” he said. “The bank was there eight years before the borough was incorporated.”

Up until that time, the closest banks were Doylestown or Norristown.

“They saw the need to have money transactions closer than that every day,” Shearer said. “It was very profitable from the beginning.”

The original bank was in a small building that resembled an oversized one-room schoolhouse, Shearer said. Another bank was soon built next to it, and the old original bank became Lansdale’s post office.

When the bank was eventually expanded, it shared space with the post office until the bank took everything over.

“Lansdale had a bank before it had mail service,” Shearer said. “People used to have to go out to White’s Corner, at Allentown Road and Valley Forge Road, on land where PNC Bank is now.”

Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, contacted Shearer in December and requested various historical photos of the borough.

“They do one of these murals for 60 percent of new bank acquisitions,” Shearer said. “They partner with a local historical society and they put together a mural representative of the town they are serving.”

Shearer sent Wells Fargo about 30 different high-resolution images to draw from.  He also informed them of the history of the town and the bank’s connection to it. The two corresponded back and forth, with Shearer offering them other photos that he figured they would prefer to use in the mural.

Featured in the mural, in addition to the trolleys and the Lansdale Athletic Association (who were a “sandlot” football team, according to Shearer, and who are posing on a sports field that was once located at Susquehanna Avenue and White’s Road) are the following pictures:

• A group gathered outside the Junction House saloon in 1898 (this photo also graces a wall upon entering borough hall)

• A postcard of the Tremont Hotel

• Travelers waiting at the Lansdale railroad station in 1918

• The First National Bank of Lansdale in 1922

• A Wells Fargo & Co. Express label

• An 1886 map of Lansdale

• A woman crossing West Main Street near the Lansdale railroad station in 1904 (This is near where the Kugel Ball is located today)

• An 1877 map of Montgomery County

• A view of Main Street in 1939

• A poster advertising Wells Fargo & Co. Express money orders from 1900

Curran said people love the mural, and it has become a nostalgic item for the older customers.

“It’s funny to watch the folks that don’t see it and we point it out,” he said. “A lot of them remember certain specific things, like the Tremont Hotel and the trolley.”

He said the mural is representative of Wells Fargo’s roots as a community-based organization.

“A lot of people associate Wells Fargo with the West Coast, but it’s had a strong presence on the East Coast since the 1800s,” he said.

In fact, Wells Fargo helped Pennsylvania miners who headed to California during the gold rush send funds to families back home. The company would have Bills of Exchange drawn and payable on-site in many East Coast cities, including Philadelphia.

“This couldn’t have come at a better time for Lansdale, with what is coming with the streetscapes and First Fridays,” said Curran. “This was timed that way; it’s just part of what Wells Fargo does.”

Shearer was told by councilwoman Anne Schuering that the mural has prompted other businesses to consider displaying old time Lansdale photos in their shops.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Shearer said of the mural. “It’s obviously an attempt by commercial organizations like this that have a national footprint to localize and connect with the local customer, the local investor and the local person who uses their bank.”

The mural also helps out the historical society.

“Anything to promote history in downtown Lansdale is great,” Shearer said. “The pictures are sort of iconic.”