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lFor over 150 years, this building has adorned our town, originally as a hardware store, then for approximately 135 years as a hometown community bank. The second floor was created for civic organizations that needed a hall to meet. When the Bryson Post #225, Grand Army of the Republic was instituted in 1881, they rented the hall in what was then known as the Hogue Building and eventually became the property of Farmers National Bank. The second floor was eventually rented to tenants for a short time before the bank took over that space for storage. Watsontown Historical Association and Museum purchased the building which consisted of four sections from the Watsontown Borough. The central part of the building was constructed about 1859 by Joseph P. Hogue (1809-1868), a lumber merchant who was born in Watsontown. On July 12, 1861, Joseph was appointed Postmaster and mail was received and distributed from his store on the northside of the original building. It continued as a hardware store. On March 29, 1886, they officially opened for business renting space on the northside of the Hogue Building with Simpson Smith as president, Charles Heilman, vice president, and Hiram Dunkel, cashier. On their initial day, the bank had a capital of $50,000 distributed among sixty-four stockholders in shares of $100 each. The Farmers National Bank purchased the Hogue Building on November 7, 1896, for $3,300.
In November of 1982 Farmers National Bank was purchased by Commonwealth Bank whose headquarters was in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Later Commonwealth Bank merged into Meridian Bank based in Reading, Pennsylvania. Meridian was sold to CoreStates out of Philadelphia who in turn sold it to First Union in 1998. First Union was not interested in the northern tier of this banking institution so on September 8, 1998, just three weeks after acquiring it, sold it to Sovereign Bank. During the peak of the financial crisis in 2008, Santander became the sole owner of Sovereign Bank. In December 2016, Santander announced that they were closing their site at Watsontown and moving all their Watsontown customers to Milton. The last day of banking operations at what had been a bank for 131 years was March 17, 2017.
This building has a long and interesting history and is presently headquarters for the Watsontown Historical Association. Inside you will find historical information and items collected from our area. Hours of operation are posted on the doors. .