The William’s Bank Building Story

by Ralph Barnes

Citizen Voice & Times

May 8, 1997

Among the more prominent structures in downtown Irvine is the imposing building on the corner of Main Street and Broadway known as the Williams Bank Building. As the name implies, the building was constructed to house a bank. The structure still carries that designation even though no bank has occupied the spot for sixty-seven years. The man for whom the building was named, W.T.B. Williams, was a leading Irvine businessman around the turn of the century. Williams was a self-made man who amassed a fortune through real estate ventures and farming. His parents moved to West Irvine from Clark County, when he was a boy. Williams married Katherine “Kitty” White, daughter of Daniel and Ruthy Henry White, in 1859. The Whites, a prominent West Irvine family, operated the West Irvine ferry for many years. That union produced a son and two daughters; Mattie, Etta and Thomas. After Katherine died in 1872, Williams married Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of Alex Hamilton. Elizabeth bore him two sons and a daughter; William Price., George B. and Myrtle.

The Estill County Deposit Bank, chartered in 1894 and believed to be Irvine’s first bank, went into receivership shortly after the turn of the century. Williams and his eldest son, Thomas, assumed responsibility for the troubled institution and changed the name to the W.T.B. Williams Bank. The two younger sons, William P. and George B. Williams, also held positions in the new bank. All owned handsome residences in Irvine. The first Williams Bank was located in a frame house on Main Street. The small bank proved to be very successful and at one time was the second highest ranked bank in the United States with a deposits to capital stock ratio of seventeen to one.

The success of the Williams Bank did not go unnoticed and eventually the Farmers Bank and Trust Company was chartered by a group of Irvine businessmen. When the new institution opened, Irvine became a two-bank town. The officers in the new Farmers Bank were: E. Conroy, S. B. Kelly, J. A. Wallace, V.M. Gains, Tracy Wallace and A. M. Durbin. Eventually, in response to the spectacular growth of the new town, a bank also opened in Ravenna.

When the elder Williams died of injuries sustained in a fall from a horse, Thomas Williams assumed control of the institution. After only a brief stint as bank president, Thomas died suddenly in 1909. Upon his death, his brother, George B. Williams assumed the presidency of the bank. Under George’s administration the bank continued to expand, quadrupling its assets in just a few years. The community also was growing at a phenomenal rate during the same period, due to the coming of the railroad and the oil boom. The bank’s increased assets reflected that growth.

George Williams was a successful entrepreneur in several enterprises. It was only natural that he should try wildcatting when the oil boom arrived. Anticipating the money to be made in the oil business, he got out early and signed leases for the mineral rights on hundreds of acres of potential oil land. In order to create a boom atmosphere, the banker gave leases to small under-funded wildcatters knowing that any successful oil strike would be a financial boon to him. Williams was among the earliest wildcatters to drill for oil and brought in his first well in May of 1914.

When the big strikes began, Williams sold part of his holdings to the Security Producing and Refining Company, a subsidiary of the Oklahoma-Kentucky Oil Company. In the deal, he received one and one half million dollars evenly divided between cash and stocks for part of his oil holdings. Although smaller than Standard Oil, the company was large by Irvine’s standards with assets of nearly four million dollars. John Ringling, owner of Ringling Brothers Circus, was on the board of directors. The company was headquartered in the Williams Building and George Williams served as President. Williams was already wealthy when the oil boom hit and the money he earned in the oil business elevated his financial worth considerably. In fact, he and his brothers probably were the wealthiest family in the county during that era.

Construction on more spacious quarters to accommodate a growing business, and to outstrip the competing banks, began in 1916. The plans called for a three-story building sixty feet deep and sixty-three feet wide with construction costs of thirty thousand dollars. Ironically, just a few weeks before the project was completed the old frame structure burned to the ground. The bank was forced to take up temporary quarters above D. A. and J. A. Wallace’s clothing store until the new building was ready.

Construction was completed in March of 1917 and a grand opening was held in the middle of a major snow storm. N. B. Turpin, building contractor from Richmond, had the contract for erecting the building. Turpin, a former County Judge in Madison County, also built the River View Hotel and several of the larger residences on Main Street. The spacious new structure was the most modern building in Irvine, containing its own power, water and sewer systems. Electricity was generated by steam engine in the basement. The bank shared the bottom floor with the Irvine Post Office and a drug store. The pharmacy was operated by the Rowland brothers, who had just moved to town.

In addition to the three commercial concerns housed on the ground floor, the upper floors contained twenty-seven offices. Among the occupants of the upstairs offices, on opening day, was a bright young graduate of Washington and Lee Law School, Hunter Shumate. Hunter was to become one of the county’s leading attorneys in the coming decades. Even at that early date the paper surmised that the young lawyer would have a successful career. Two of Irvine’s more established attorneys, Robert Friend and Hugh Riddle, also had their offices in the new building. Several offices of oil companies were located in the new Williams building. Clyde and V. M. Gains had the offices for their oil company in one of the upstairs rooms. Coleman Benton, field manager for the Van Oil Company also was in an upstairs office.

When the Great Depression hit in 1929, the Irvine banks were caught up in the same financial calamity that devastated scores of banks throughout the country. The reorganization of the existing financial institutions into a single bank probably was the only option for survival. The Williams bank merged with the Farmers Bank and the Ravenna State Bank in 1929 to form the Union Bank and Trust Company. The new bank located on its present site at the corner of Broadway and Back Street. Officers in the new bank were: O.W. Witt, A.M. Clark, Herbert Henderson, H.P. Moore (Moore had been cashier at the Ravenna State Bank before the merger), G. Hackworth, Hunter Shumate, Robert Bergman and Dr. B. S. Braddus. No member of the Williams family held offices in the reorganized bank. Apparently, all of the W. T. B. Williams clan left Irvine, leaving only the stately edifice on the corner of Main and Broadway to mark their passing. William P. Williams, the last cashier of the William’s Bank and the last surviving male of the family died in Huntington, West Virginia in 1936 leaving no descendants.

Several commercial enterprises have occupied the Williams building since the bank moved out. Tenants included: Irvine Telephone Company, Estill Insurance Agency (owned by Elbert Smithers and Q.C. Davis) Kentucky Utilities, Bite-Rite I5 Cent Hamburgers and Ray Webb’s Jewelry. The building again came under the ownership of a Williams when local realtor Billy “Red” Williams purchased it, about ten years ago. Williams and his wife Linda, have converted the ground floor into a restaurant. Red says that much to his regret, he cannot claim kin to the wealthy Williams bankers. Contrary to any rumors that might be circulating, the present owner has no plans for changing his first name to W.T.B. and opening a bank on the site.

Addendum by Joe Crawford: As of March 2011, the building is owned by local attorney Rodney Davis and is the home of Davis Law, PSC and the Estill County Attorney’s office.