Chicago Bank Pushes into Walla Walla
A major Midwestern investment firm is set to open a $300,000 branch in a downtown storefront by the new year.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It is reasonably assured that another bank will be opened in Walla Walla January 1 by the Carr Investment company of Chicago. Spencer E. Carr, president of the company, was in Walla Walla last week and made partial arrangements for the store room in the Stencil building at Third and Main, occupied by the Cash Shoe store. It was necessary for Mr. Carr to acquire the shoe stock in order to secure possession of the building and it is said that arrangements in this quarter have been satisfactorily arranged. The Carr Investment company is a solid financial institution of Chicago and operates a chain of banks and stores in the middle west and Pacific coast. It is understood that the bank will have a capitalization of $300,000. Mr. Carr is now in Chicago but he is expected to be in Walla Walla sometime next month.
“The Carr Investment company is a solid financial institution of Chicago and operates a chain of banks and stores in the middle west and Pacific coast.”
Bank mergers and the arrival of outside corporate chains were as much a feature of the 1903 economy as they are today. While this bank targeted the commercial center of Third and Main, the trend of local independent shops—like the 'Cash Shoe Company'—being pushed out by national chains remains a perennial tension in Walla Walla’s downtown development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.