In 1932 the Dime Trust and Safe Deposit Company merged with the Shamokin National Bank to become the National-Dime Bank of Shamokin. National-Dime was one of the largest financial institutions in Shamokin serving customers with personal and commercial loans, Christmas clubs, and savings and checking accounts. The bank’s corporate offices and main branch were located at the corner of Market and Independence Streets in downtown Shamokin, the current location of M&T Bank. In March of 1968 the National-Dime Bank merged with The Pennsylvania National Bank and Trust Company of Pottsville.
In 1958, The National-Dime Bank of Shamokin was in expansion mode. A merger with the First National Bank of Trevorton was completed on May 28th 1958 with the Trevorton Branch of The National-Dime Bank opening on June 2nd. Around the same time, renovations were underway at the corner of Independence and Shamokin Streets for what would become the East End branch of National-Dime and their third location.
The official grand opening of the East End branch commenced on July 15th 1958 with an open house celebration. The open house was attended by directors of the National-Dime Bank, local leaders and featured a live broadcast by WISL Radio.
It’s not surprising that WISL Radio would be on-hand to help promote the opening of the new, modern banking facility considering Henry W. Lark, owner of WISL Radio, was also the president of The National-Dime Bank of Shamokin.
The WISL Broadcast took place from 4pm to 10pm and featured interviews with a number of people of interest who were in attendance. The audio clip that we have to share includes one of those notable persons, Mary Roebling.
Mary Roebling was a pioneer for women in banking, becoming the President of Trenton Trust in 1937 and also the first woman ever to become president of a banking institution. When Roebling took control of Trenton Trust, the country was in the throws of The Great Depression and the bank was facing $4 million dollars in debt with only $11 million dollars in assets. By 1951, she not only was able to pull her bank through the financial crisis but also increased the banks assets to $70 million dollars. That same year she also scored the bank’s biggest client to date by securing the business of U.S. Steel.
Roebling lent her success to the cause of women’s rights and constantly promoted women in business and spoke out against sexism in the boardroom. In addition to becoming the first woman to serve as a bank president she was also the first woman governor on the American Stock Exchange, was the founder of the first female-owned bank, the Woman’s Bank of Denver in 1978 and first woman member of Union League Club in Philadelphia.
Roebling was a friend and colleague of Henry Lark and made the trip from Trenton to Shamokin for the open house event. In the following audio exhibit, we have a rare recording of Roebling as she congratulates Henry Lark on his expansion of National-Dime. This recording was likely made on premise at the new East End branch and broadcast during the 4pm to 10pm broadcast.
AUDIO EXHIBIT
Mary Roebling at the Grand Opening of The National-Dime Bank East End Branch, July 15th, 1958