Franklin Avery and the Battle of the Banks
These days, banks compete by trumpeting their great rates and friendly service. In the early 1900s, bankers like President Franklin Avery of the original First National Bank of Fort Collins were more audacious. To claim preeminence in the growing Fort Collins market, they built one grand building after another.
The First National Bank opened in the Opera Building on the west side of College Avenue in 1881. But from the start, Avery dreamed of a building that would dominate the Times Square of Fort Collins. His dreaming turned to serious planning in 1883, when his rivals, Charles Sheldon and William Stover, moved their Poudre Valley Bank into a beautiful new building on the corner of Walnut and Linden.
Poudre Valley Bank moved to the Loomis & Andrews Building in 1883. This competition inspired Franklin Avery to plan the Avery Block Building. (Local History Archive H02606)
Avery eclipsed the Poudre Valley Bank building in 1897 with the new Avery Block on the corner of College and Mountain. Determined to remain the reining banker in town, he immediately began planning an even more spectacular building to replace the Avery Block! "Constructed of granite and terra cotta, of the Greek Ionic order," the massive building opened with great ceremony in 1908 across the street from the Avery Building, where Cache Bank & Trust is located today.
Franklin Avery’s final architectural achievement. This colossal building, on the SE corner of College and Mountain, was the home of First National Bank from 1908 until the re-chartered bank moved to a modern building at Oak Street and Mason in 1961. (Local History Archive H01454)
Sheldon and Stover modestly answered Avery’s challenge in 1917 by moving into the building on the southwest corner. They enlarged the building in 1927 and remained there for 40 years until moving to the site of today’s Wells Fargo Bank on South College.
The Poudre Valley Bank shared this humble building with the Parlor Drugstore before moving to a new home on the corner of Walnut and Linden in 1883. (Local History Archive H02607)
The two buildings Avery built for the First National Bank. That’s the Avery Block facing us on the NE corner of College and Mountain. Its lavish replacement, on the SE corner, was demolished in 1961 largely because it offered no room to answer the craze for drive-up banking. (Local History Archive H01459)
A shrewd marketer, Avery declared that his bank would specialize in handling the accounts of “the ladies of Fort Collins.” A comfortable “Ladies Writing Room” provided stationery, current magazines and even a private teller’s window. Today, Avery would surely include free Wi-Fi. (Local History Archive H18237)
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Avery's grandest bank,
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