BACK TO THE FUTURE IN DENVER Pubblico Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 42, October 20, 2002, Article 12
BACK TO THE FUTURE IN DENVER
From the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, CO comes this
story, published October 16, 2002:"First United Bank President Stephen P. Baltz loves history.
And he says he's saddened that most of Colorado's banks have
lost their local history through mergers and acquisitions and are
now headquartered in places such as California, Minnesota,
Ohio, Utah, North Dakota and Alabama.But Baltz is rolling back the clock in his latest banking branch,
which he expects to open by mid-November in the historic
Equitable Building in the heart of downtown Denver."You'll be stepping back into time" when you enter his bank at
740 17th St., Baltz said, while walking around the space that
will look as much as possible like the First National Bank of
Denver looked from 1896 to 1911, when Colorado business
pioneer David Moffat was president and the bank was located
in the Equitable Building.... he's re-creating the space based on old photos of Moffat
and his nephew, Fred Moffat. The photos show the Moffats
sitting in their offices in the old First National Bank of Denver,
which in 1897 was the largest west of the Mississippi River.Baltz also owns the adjacent Molly's of Denver space. He
hopes to carve out a small portion of that to replicate David
Moffat's former office...Baltz is spending about a million dollars on the renovation.
The new bank will have replicas of the old mahogany desks
and chairs seen in the photos. The walls will be covered
with antique maps.Teller cages - which had bars as a defense against bank
robbers - also will be be replicated, but Baltz won't require
his employees to dress in historic garb."We might have special days when we get dressed up," he
said.Former First National Bank executive - and de facto historian
- Bob Pulcipher, takes his hat off to Baltz.While there are other historic banks in Denver, such as the
Colorado National Bank that is relatively unchanged over
the past 80 years, no one has done what Baltz is undertaking,
said Pulcipher, one of the authors of a coffee-table book on
First National Bank called the Pioneer Western Bank - First
of Denver: 1860-1980."To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever given a
contractor an old photo of a bank and said, 'Build this for
me,' " Pulcipher said."http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_82_1481472,00.html
[So on "dress up days," will they hand out large size
national bank notes in change?See the full story on the newspaper's web site, along with
a photo of an antique 7.5 ton bank vault door being lowered
into the building. And if you have any interest in early
Denver numismatic history, you should locate a copy of the
"Pioneer Western Bank" book, published in 1984. I have a
copy in my library and it's a great source of information on
Clark, Gruber & Co and the first Denver branch mint, along
with color illustrations of of Denver numismatic items including
pioneer gold, paper money and checks. -Editor]- 2002-10-20
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