Lansdale 'will do everything we possibly can' to preserve bank building

Jul 21, 2023

LANSDALE — The future of a historic building in Lansdale could become more clear this month.

Borough officials heard an update about the imminent closure of the Wells Fargo bank on Main Street, vowing to do what they can to preserve it.

“I came here tonight to show my support for the preservation of the Wells Fargo building,” said resident Denise Peyton.

In May the Wells Fargo branch at the corner of Main Street and Susquehanna Avenue announced in a letter sent to customers its plans to close on Aug. 16, after closing several other branches in the region in late 2022, according to reporting by North Penn Now at that time.

The borough’s staff then discussed the closure in talks on the pending conversion of Susquehanna to two-way traffic, and the Lansdale Historical Society has posted a series of “Back Then” columns on its Facebook page detailing the history of the building. In July, LHS President Pat Rieker detailed the history of the building for the council and urged members to take several steps to preserve that building and others of historic nature in the town.

The Lansdale National Bank first opened on the site on June 16, 1864, over eight years before the town was formally incorporated in 1872 when the population of what would become Lansdale was less than 500 residents. A one-story building on the site would become the town’s first post office in the 1870s, as a new two-story building was built next door in 1875, according to LHS research.

As the town grew, the two sites were combined into one expanded building in 1911, and hosted classes for the Lansdale School of Business on the second floor from 1918-1928; the bank moved temporarily across the street during an interior renovation in 1929 into the 1930s as the current façade was added.

Those renovations were completed by the time of the bank’s 75th anniversary in March 1939, when roughly 10,000 visitors toured the new bank in just seven hours, which was believed at the time to be the second-largest crowd ever seen in Lansdale, behind only the town’s 50th-anniversary celebrations in 1922, according to LHS research.

Peyton referenced the pending closure during her public comments to the council on Aug. 2, saying she “volunteered at a historic site for over 20 years, so I understand the importance of the preservation of old buildings.”

“And I think that they help to add character to the community, and I’d hate for us to have a cookie-cutter community,” she said.

She then referenced another local landmark now gone: the 1890s-era Tremont Hotel that stood at Main and Broad Streets until the late 1990s, when it was demolished to make way for a big-box pharmacy.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, in this area, and I know we saw what happened when they took down the Tremont, and they replaced it with what they replaced it with,” Peyton said.

“So I’m hoping they can maybe come up with solutions to help keep it here,” she said.

Council Vice President Mary Fuller replied, saying she thought all of the council agreed.

“Saving that building is very important to, I think, all of us, and we will do everything we possibly can,” Fuller said.

“Understanding that a private company owns it, and they have the right to sell it, but we’ll do everything in our power to make sure that building stays erect,” she said.

Code committee Chairman Rich DiGregorio added in his report to the council that staff and that committee also started talks during their August 2 meeting on ways to preserve historically or architecturally significant structures, with no firm recommendations for the council yet.

“Staff is looking into trying to establish some protections for historical buildings, and it’s a work in progress. We were just talking about it tonight, and we’re going to keep it on our agenda and try to get some more information and resolutions to look at,” said DiGregorio.

During the July presentation, Rieker called on the council to take several actions that could ensure the preservation, including changing the demolition permits issued by the borough, creating a historic district in the borough where any changes would be vetted by a dedicated board, and contacting real estate agents handling such sales to voice the borough’s concerns.

Code Director Jason Van Dame said Wednesday that staff have not received any plans or indications for future use of the building, and are operating under the assumption it will be listed for sale on or around August 16, while the committee will keep discussing the preservation tactics recommended by the historical society and how such a zoning district could be created along the lines of what’s spelled out in the town’s most recent comprehensive plan.

That comprehensive plan, adopted by the council in 2020 after roughly five years of public discussion, suggests council adopts an ordinance to facilitate the preservation or reuse of older institutional buildings, nominate properties to the National Register, and form a municipal historical commission; the bank building is included in a list of 46 historic properties highlighted in the “historic resources” chapter of that plan.

Other commendations from the comprehensive plan include formalizing an inventory of structures considered to be historically significant, creating a waiting period before a demolition permit for such a building could be issued, creating use and dimensional incentives to preserve such buildings, adding signs to indicate historic properties throughout town, and/or creating an adaptive reuse overlay to allow newer uses in old buildings.

“We are evaluating a couple of different options,” Van Dame said.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 16 with various council committees next meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 6, all at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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