Historic Louisiana

COMMUNITY
TRUST BANK
✧
Below: The Bank of Choudrant in
Choudrant, Louisiana, 1926. It served as
original Community Trust Bank) building..
Bottom: Community Trust Bank Financial
Center, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1998.
HISTORIC LOUISIANA
124
Choudrant, Louisiana, was far from a
banking Mecca in 1912. Yet it was the
birthplace, and remains the headquarters, of one
of Louisiana’s most successful and respected
financial institutions. Community Trust Bank
had its origins as the Bank of Choudrant,
founded in November 1912, with a
capitalization of $10,000.
Providing a unique brand of personalized,
“relationship” banking and financial services to
an ever-expanding list of customers and
communities over the past ninety years,
Community Trust Bank has excelled in its
mission of placing as much emphasis on creating
opportunity and growth for their communities,
customers and employees, as they do for their
shareholders. Employees are involved in every
worthwhile endeavor within the communities
served, while placing the customer first as they
go about their daily business of banking. Walk
into any office of Community Trust Bank
and happy, smiling employees will be found who
are knowledgeable and eager to meet the
customer’s needs.
The original bank building, constructed in
1912, faced the Vicksburg, Shreveport and
Pacific Railroad, which had been completed
through Choudrant nine years before. The Bank
occupied this location until 1959, when it
relocated near U.S. Highway 80, formerly
known as the Dixie Overland Highway, a
highway that eventually spanned the continent.
As the banking environment began changing
through mergers and regional bank competition,
Community Trust Bank determined that to be
able to compete, it must provide greater
convenience to its existing customers while
expanding its trade area.
The first step toward this goal was the
opening of an office in Ruston in 1983. Then,
in 1987, an expansion was made into Union
Parish with the acquisition of the Bank of
Bernice and its branch in Farmerville. The
name of the merged institutions was changed
to Community Trust Bank. With this merger,
the bank almost doubled in size, resulting in
total assets of $39 million.
In 1990 the Rock Island Depot/Freight
House in Ruston was acquired and converted
to the Bank’s fifth office.
Another Ruston office, the Community
Trust Bank Financial Center, was opened for
business in 1996, providing a twenty-threethousand-square-foot
facility that offers the
latest in financial products along with
Community Trust Bank’s legendary attention
to personal service. In addition to retail
banking, the Financial Center offers
commercial lending, home mortgage lending,
and trust and equity services. A unique
feature of this office is a Community Room
available to civic and charitable organizations
and various youth groups as a meeting place.
This room is provided as a community service
free of charge.