Tag Archives: Regions Bank

Heritage Federal

hfpen

Courtesy of Carl Swann.

Heritage Federal Savings and Loan Association, 110 East Center Street, started out in 1930 and meandered on until 1981, when somebody kicked off a flurry of acquisitions (read all about it here).  It officially lost the name in 1995 when it was acquired by First American National Bank, now part of Regions Bank.

The logo, which is partially cut off in this shot, is a symbolic Minuteman haloed by, guess what, 13 stars.  Heritage, get it?

One snowy evening, around 1957 or 1958, as I was sloshing my way down to the library, which was then on the corner of East Center and Shelby Streets, I saw Martin Karant doing a live remote in the big window at Heritage Federal.  He was soliciting money for some organization.  I walked in and volunteered to help (I was quite young at the time).  I stood outside, in the snow, for a half hour or so and offered a canister for people to put coins in.  In those years, there were quite a few people out walking around downtown in the evenings, shopping and so forth.

First National Bank

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Grubby, but unbowed.  It’s kind of difficult to date this money bag.  The downtown drive-in branch closed sometime in the 60s, maybe early 70s.  It was on the corner of Clay and New Streets, across from where Chef’s Pizza is now.  You can still see the traffic direction arrows for the drive-in lanes sunk into the concrete (they were originally filled with yellow concrete, but it’s mostly eroded away).
Storied history of this bank: established in 1916, as you can see.  J. Fred Johnson was a VP in ’23 and President by 1931.  In 1963, First NB of Kingsport and First NB of Bristol merged and sometime later the group became First NB of Sullivan County.  In 1981,  it became First Eastern NB; in 1982, it was First American Bank-Eastern and on and on  It might be Regions Bank now.

The bag is 10.5″ x 6″.  It really could do with a good washing, but that’s not going to happen.  HIstoric integrity and all that.