The downtown St. Michaels branch of PNC Bank held a “customer appreciation day” on Monday, as a final goodbye to the town where its original predecessor opened 123 years ago. The branch will close its doors at 3:00 PM on Friday, November 15th. The Rio Vista branch at 1101 S. Talbot St. will remain open, as will the branch at 104 Marlboro Rd. in Easton.
According to a booklet published in recognition of the bank’s 100th anniversary, a charter was filed on January 3, 1890, by eight St. Michaels businessmen for the St. Michaels Savings Bank of Talbot County. Two short months later, the bank opened its doors to depositors. Deposit limits of not less than 25 cents and not more than $10 at one time or $20 a week were set. In the booklet, R.F. Droege recounts the history of the St. Michaels Bank up through the 1980s, including photos of all bank locations over the years, and the 1978 building of the Rio Vista branch, which offered the county’s first Saturday walk-up counter service.
The bank’s 1972 armed robbery is described in Droege’s account. On July 18, 1972, two brothers from Cambridge managed to get away with some $14,000 after herding the bank employees and customers into the vault and commandeering a vehicle. The robbers were caught just nine miles away, thanks to the quick thinking of an elderly customer, who entered the bank unnoticed during the robbery, and quickly left to report it to police.
The closing marks the second recent bank closing in St. Michaels, after Bank of America closed its Talbot St. branch earlier this year. Two ATMs will service St. Michaels tourists and downtown visitors, one at Blackthorn Irish Pub at 209 S. Talbot, and another at the St. Michaels ACME – 114 S. Talbot St.
The Bank building will be listed for sale on November 15th.
Below is a copy of an 1890 report of the St. Michaels Savings Bank of Talbot County.
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