Huntington Bank Albion Branch closes • Albion Michigan

The building at 207 S. Superior Street was the location of Huntington Bank, Albion branch that closed on January 8, 2019. Huntington Bank closed 31 locations in Michigan and Ohio due to the changing economy of online banking, ATM’s, and mobile banking apps.
This location and structure was not always a bank, and the bank was not always located here.

View of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel from upstairs at the bank

The upstairs of 207 S Superior, the old bank downtown Albion

The view of the mural from an office downstairs at Huntington Bank

The Old Stone Mill at 207 S. Superior St. that was extensively renovated to become the bank building.

Demolition of the Stone Mill that left some of the foundation and structure intact for the new bank.

The remodeled bank building with the ornate cap that had to be removed in the 1960’s for the new code.

The old fuse box upstairs at 207 S. Superior St.

Herschel C Fox, the President of the Commercial & Savings Bank, entry door to his office.

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The local bank dates back to 1893, with the organization of the Commercial & Savings Bank. It was first located on the corner of E. Erie and S. Superior Streets, and moved to this location at 207 S. Superior St. in 1917. The Commercial & Savings Bank was merged with the Jackson City Bank & Trust Company in 1955, to form the City Bank & Trust Company. (source Place Promo see below)

Stone Mill (on far right) before being converted into a bank.
Source: James B. Field, Souvenir of the City of Albion, 1894.

***

In 1916, the 1845-built 3 ½ story landmark Jesse Crowell Stone (flour) Mill in downtown Albion was extensively reconstructed into the Commercial & Savings Bank, 207 S. Superior St. The latter opened on January 1, 1917. [Note: Today it is the Huntington Bank]. Local newspaper Albion Leader editor William B. Gildart (1848-1918) composed and published a poem as part of an “obituary”for the Mill. We are republishing it here. From our Historical Notebook this week we present an 1857 drawing of the Mill, shown on the left. The original Mill office (present-day site of Fedco) is on the right. (source Frank Passic on AlbionMich.com)

THE OLD STONE MILL.
We have no strange or mystic shrines,
No temples here moss-grown with age.
The new is old ere yet it lines
Are fairly traced on history’s page

Man rears a solid work of rock
He quarries from the native soil
A structure that should bear the shock
Of grinding Time’s relentless toil.

Within those gray, protecting walls
Man’s cunning craft is deftly plied.
His labor done; the master calls
Down the long race the pent-up tide.

That tide was but the living blood
Poured into artery and vein
Of iron, and stone and steel and wood,
Conceptions of master brain.

The purring wheels begin to turn;
The throb and hum of life begin;
A Fancy’s child has thus been born
To live and thrive within that din.

That din was heard through three score years;
Attractive was its whirring sound.
T’was music to the pioneers
Who settled in the country ‘round.

A city from a hamlet grew
The Stone Mill made the daily flour
Of toiling hundreds—they who do
And dare to be a city’s power.

But Time no temp’ring mercy knows;
His withering hand is over all;
All are but midgets ‘neath his blows,
And men and things before him fall.

‘Twas so with him whose fertile brain
Conceived the thought, the structure reared;
‘Twill be the same—O, sad refrain!
Now that his work has disappeared.

The Stone Mill, first a Fancy thought,
The mind of man containing.
Will be once more an airy naught
Fond Memory retaining.

HIstoric Plaque inside the entryway to the old Huntington Bank.

Once again we bid farewell to the business that occupied this building with fond memories. We look forward to a new venture coming at this special Albion location.

Some information above (between the asterisks ***) contains a quote from “Place Promo.”

Isaac David Kremer, Albion Interactive History, www.placepromo.com/aih, 2001-2011, [01-09-19]