Smyrna times., 1925-01-21
NEW FRUIT GROWERS NATIONAL
BANK TO Be ERECTED HERE
OLD FELINTIN PROPERTY TO BE
TORN DOWN SPEEDILY
New Building Will Be Modern in
Every Respect Including a Large
Vault for Safe Deposit Boxes

Every Respect Including a Large
Vault for Safe Deposit Boxes
Monday morning building opera
tions began on a new Bank Build
ing for the Fruit Growers National
Bank of Smyrna, Delaware. The new
building will be erected on Commerce
Street, Immediately adjoining the
corner property of the Cummins Es-
state. 1t will have a frontage of for
ty-five feet and depth of fifty feet
and will be constructed throughout of
substantial and enduring materials.
Probably the most noteworthy feature
Of the new building will be the vault.
knowing that secure vault was one
OF the real needs of the community,
the bank determined to equip the new
building with a strong box equal to
many Of those in the biggest cities.
Provision for 1900 Safe Deposit Boxes
1t will be built large enough to hold
twelve hundred safe deposit boxes in
addition to the banks own heavy
money chests. On one side of the
public space is a steel grille. After
passing through the gate in this
screen the customer finds himself in
a space fitted with private coupon
booths and allotted to the exclusive
use of safety deposit box renters. The
vault opens directly upon this space
giving the customer the greatest free
dom in the use of his box. With its
twelve ton solid steel door. its mas
sive reinforced concrete walls and its
steel vault lining forming a separate
inner steel vault within the outer
concrete vault, the Fruit Growers
Bank vault will long defy any burg
lar who essays to enter it. Not con-
tent with the substantial barrier of
concrete and steel, the vault will be
increasingly guarded by an electrified
system of wire nets and sheets of
lead so ingeniously contrived that in
slant warning is given whenever any
unauthorized entrance into the vault
is attempted. This electric alarm is
given even before a cracksman has
had time to settle down to work upon
the tons of steel that impede his en-
trance, thus making the strong box
as near burglar proof as human in
geEuity can devise.
New Quarters to be Safe and Secure
In all of its other details the build
ing reflects, as does the vault, the de-
sire of the bank to promote the con-
venience and security of its depOsi-
tors. With resources of over a mil
lion dollars, and constantly growing,
the bank determined that the new
> building shall have built into it every
device that makes banking safe, rap
id and pleasurable. The institutions
in the largest cities will be able to
offer their customers no more than
will the Fruit Growers in its new
quarters.
A Bank to Serve the Community
Banks are often accused of follow
ing behind the prosperity of theil
communities-Of enjoying the bene
fits without aiding in their accom-
plishment-of riding along without
assessment, on the back of the com
munity's advance. The forward look
ing action of the Fruit Growers Ma.
| tiOnal Bank takes it out of this cata.
CORY and places it unquestionably int
the Company of the progressive bust
ness builders. 1t is giving the mos
unmistakable evidence of its deer
rooted faith in its own community anC
it is legibly writing where all may
read it, its firm intention to aggres
sively promote that community Bull
of enduring materials-stOne, steel
| concrete bronze and marble, thu
/ structure expresses the very certain
| promise of a long future of faithful
] service, security and sober growth.
| With the completion of this new
building the town of Smyrna will be
come one of the recognized banking
centers of the peninsula.
i The design and construction of tn
| building was placed in the hands o
y the Tilghman Meyer Company, Arch
. itects and Engineers, of Allentown
Pennsylvania, a firm specializing i
1 the design, construction and euuip