The History Behind One Building

Dionne Pasche

Urban Studies

Section 100 - 4

Past to Present

I trudged down Val Illm Drive with a backpack stuffed with books from my previous classes. On this hike I started my journey of the Walking Tour. Gathering at Warren St. and Val Illm Drive, we awaited our leader and then assembled our groups from a mesh of wandering stray cats into a swarm of bumble bees.

The walking tour gave the groups insight about the city of Mankato: the historical significance of how everything stands in a city, the architecture that portrayed different eras as well as different social classes, and the many buildings that demonstrated adaptive reuse.

While walking up and down sidewalks, and feeling the climate change from cool to warm, we stopped for a restroom break in the new City Hall. Dr. J. said that we were half way through the tour. I followed the crowd expecting the same things as we saw before, but after I stepped out the door there stood a large building looking quite young. It was the Midwest wireless Civic Center, the city’s main “holding grounds” for entertainment. Little did I know that this building was incorporated from the Ellerbe Building. The Ellerbe Building replaced the First National Bank of Mankato.

Before 1865 a couple of attempts were made, prior to the war, to start banking. During that fall, J. J. Thornton, Senator Monton S. Wilkinson, John N. Hall, and Mr. James B. Hubbell created a company to successfully bank; they called the company J. J. Thornton and Company. On September 10, 1868, the Thornton and Company was taken over by The First National Bank of Mankato.

The following spring, on the corner of Hickory and Front Streets, they leased a plot of land, twenty by twenty-four feet, for five years. This one-story banking house was found at 229 Front Street, with a side entrance at 108 S. Hickory Street. It had forty-three businessmen insistent on organizing a banking company to make their city better, helped by the National Banking Act of 1863. On May 20^th, 1868, a charter authorized capital of $60,000 to The First National Bank of Mankato. Mankato’s population, at the time, was about 2,000 to 2,500 people. This allowed Mankato, the most important city southwest of St. Paul, to attract trading and produce sales (The Record of 40 years).

The first president of The First National Bank of Mankato was A. C. Woofolk; he was an ex-quartermaster of the U.S. Army, a Judge of the District Court and an attorney-at-law. John F. Meagher was his vice-president and John N. Hall the cashier.

“The new bank drew in rapid business by advertised [sic] a twelve per cent loan per annum and would pay seven per cent on certificates of deposit. In 1876, the one-story building was erected. Then by the new year of 1908 the growth deposits grew to $1,080,095.” (The Record of 40 Years, page 9).

The First National Bank of Mankato went under its first reconstruction in 1876. During that time the James-Younger gang was in Northfield and two members watched over the Mankato’s bank reconstruction. This building served the people till 1913 when a newer bank was rebuilt. Then in 1947 and again in 1962 remodeling was done. The First National Bank relocated to 204 S. Second Street in 1974 where it still stands today. In the 1980’s, the old First National Bank was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

When the First National Bank relocated the old foundation became the Ellerbe Building. Its architecture design was by Ellerbe and the Round Brothers who have a building design company in the Twin Cities. “This is an example of Prairie School architecture at the early turn of the century.” (The Walking Tour, p.12). The design of the North Star in the windows was a logo before the Civic Center was added on. You can see this in the lights of the plaza.

The Ellerbe Building continued to function as the Civic Center’s office until a portion was made into a reception hall in 1995. The old First National Bank vault is still intact along with a few offices.

Today the Ellerbe building is a part of the Midwest Wireless Civic Center, previously called the Mankato Civic Center. It was added in 1994 as a source of entertainment and meetings. The Civic Center was also built to use as MSU’s hockey arena. Mankato’s sales tax went up a half percent in order to finance this beautiful building.

Bibliography

· Mankato, Its First Fifty Years (1852-1902), Free Press Printing Co., 1903.

· The Heritage of Blue Earth County, Published 1990, by Curtis Media Co. and Julie Hiller Schrader.

· The Record of 40 years, Published 1908, by The First National Bank of Mankato, Minnesota.

· Walking Tour, by Dr. J. Cherrington, URSI 100-4 Class Packet F01 Semester, p. 12.