Historic Walker County

FIRST NATIONAL
BANK OF
HUNTSVILLE
On January 14, 1890, Gibbs National
Bank—now First National Bank of Huntsville
(FNBH)—opened its doors for business on the
square. Prior to 1890, the Gibbs family had
provided banking services to the citizens of
Huntsville through the family mercantile business,
which opened in 1841. Located on Cedar
and Jackson Streets, now known as Eleventh
Street and Sam Houston Avenue, this practice
of “private banking” services largely consisted
of safeguarding valuables in the store’s vault or
carrying promissory notes from customers who
repaid the note when their crop was harvested.
General Sam Houston traded regularly in the
Gibbs store, and thought so highly of Thomas
Gibbs that he named him as an executor of
his will. By the late 1880s, the Gibbs family
acquired a national bank charter and the bank
opened directly next door to the mercantile
store, named in honor of Sandford Gibbs. His
widow, Sallie Gibbs, was one of the founders of
the bank. However, it was considered improper
for a woman to lead a business, so she installed
her two sons as the bank’s managers and ran
the bank out of the public eye. At the time of
Sallie’s Gibbs death in 1918, Gibbs National
Bank was thriving and in
solid condition. In 1923, recognizing
its role as a community
bank, the name was changed
to First National Bank of
Huntsville—a name that remains
unchanged today.
Despite the challenging economic
times of the Great Depression in the
1930s, First National Bank continued as a strong
community bank, priding itself on helping customers
with financial services. In 1936, when
the bank was remodeled, a new seven ton vault
with a seven foot door was installed, along with
500 safety deposit boxes to better serve
customers. In 1939, bank deposits exceeded
$1 million for the first time. In 1940, First
National Bank of Huntsville celebrated fifty
years of banking in Walker County, and by
the end of that decade, deposits exceeded $3
million. The 1950s were a booming time of
change. Customers shifted from
cash to check writing; every
check was handled entirely by
hand. By the end of the decade,
the bank had outgrown its original
location and for the first
time since its founding seventy
years earlier, built and moved to
a new building on Eleventh
Street in July 1962. (Currently,
the location of the Huntsville
Police Department.) This building
had the first drive-in window
whereby transactions were
couriered underground in pneumatic
tubes. Customers and
tellers viewed each other via
two-way television screens. In 1964, the bank
added a Trust Department, which continues to
provide Trust services today.
The building that housed First National Bank
of Huntsville for a little over ten years was
quickly outgrown, and in 1976, the bank once
again broke ground to move to its third and current
location. The new six story building, located
on Eleventh Street once again, opened in 1977 and
provided the bank with room for future growth.
The drive-thru was, then, relocated and expanded
to seven lanes providing the opportunity to continue
to serve customers with expanded services.
7 0 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y