Bank of Blowing Rock

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Founded 1904, the Bank of Blowing Rock began as a brick building on the corner of Main Street and Sunset Drive. Only in operation until the mid 1930s the bank building today stands as a rental property agency office space. The transactions that occurred through this bank would have been vital to the growth of the tourist destination small town.

Images

Bank of Blowing Rock c1907

Pattern, Textile, Woven fabric, Outerwear

Bank note from Bank of Blowing Rock

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

Founded by several local families the Bank of Blowing rock was in operation from 1904 until recorded transactions cease in 1936. The building itself is documented as appearing in approximately 1907 at the corner of Main Street and Sunset Drive in downtown Blowing Rock. The founding of this establishment was made possible by a wealthy out-of-towner named H.C. Adair who presented 50% of the starting stock of the bank. The officiate of the beginning of this small town bank was one J.H.C. Coffey, who was Justice of the Peace at that time.

Some of the last transactions the bank registered were a purchase and a sale. The purchase of an adding machine in 1934 for the hefty price of about $130 dollars paid in three separate installments. In current U.S. currency in 2020, that machine would have cost approximately $2,435. The last sale that was registered at the Bank of Blowing Rock was the sale of 20 acres of land (including a structure that is undisclosed) in Blowing Rock to one J. Anthony Panuch of New York, NY, from one Mary Moffett, of Charleston, SC. The price of such land in 1936 was $6,000. Today that price would translate to approximately $112,400, while the price of land in and around Blowing Rock ranges from about $15,000-$195,000 per acre, not including existing structures.

The building that once was The Bank of Blowing Rock is now a real estate office, the brick building remains largely unchanged on the outside other than a rear extension, and the upper facade has been modified. Hundreds of tourists and locals alike walk by without knowing how central that little office would have been to the town a century ago. It was because of the local bank that many could afford loans and large purchases to update, renovate, remove, and convert buildings in order to keep the tourist industry afloat and thriving to this day.

Sources

Burns, Jerry. “Browse Items (Blowing Rock Bank, Bank of Blowing Rock).” Digital Watauga. Omeka, Accessed Nov 28, 2020. https://digitalwatauga.org/items/tags .

Shook, Amy J. “Watauga County Register of Deeds.” Courthouse Computer Systems. Courthouse Computer Systems. Records of 1904-1936. Accessed November 27, 2020. http://72.15.246.185/watauganc/#2.

(Former) Bank of Blowing Rock, 1989, Box: 12, Folder: 8. Watauga County Historical Site Survey Records, AC-112. Appalachian State University Special Collections. Accessed Nov 28, 2020. https://appstate-speccoll.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/archival_objects/39249