Western Montana Building & Loan Since 1911
The Article below is from the Missoulian Sentinel Centennial Edition of 1960:
Western Montana Building & Loan Shows Tremendous Gain in Assets
The office of a Missoula attorney, Albert Besancon, was the scene of the organization meeting June 8, 1911, of the Western Montana Building & Loan Association.
With Besancon at that first session were S. H. Russell, credited with having interested local businessmen in the idea of a mutual savings and loan organization, E. W. Himes, J. B. Ambrose, William H. Fisher, J. P. Lansing, B. A. Van Wormer and George L. Pavey.
Capital stock was fixed at $100,000, divided into shares of $100 each.
First Directors
The association was incorporated June 24, 1911, with the first board of directors listing T. A. Price, J. E. King, Ambrose, Lansing, Fisher, Van Wormer, Russell, Himes and Pavey as members. Himes was elected president; Price, vice president; Pavey, treasurer; Russell, secretary; Fisher, assistant secretary, and Besancon, attorney.
The first financial statement presented Aug. 12, 1911, showed total assets of $94 and total expenditures of $57.80, leaving the balance on hand $36.20. This compares with total assets of $20,524,379.75 as of the start of 1960.
First Loan Made
The first home loan actually was approved before the organization meeting of the association. It was for $1,400 for Elina DeRyke to help pay for construction of a home at 525 Brooks St., which cost $2,335. This was approved Feb. 24, 1911.
Price was elected president of the association July 16, 1915, serving until July 8, 1944. William N. Dixon, a member of the board of directors since July 12, 1919, has been president since 1944.
To Present Location
The association moved to its present location at the corner of Higgins and Broadway Aug. 10, 1931. The ground floor and basement of the original building formerly occupied by the American Bank & Trust Co. were leased from Henry W. Lehsou, and the association later purchased the building.
Before that the association had operated from the basement of the Higgins Block and in the rear of the Western Montana National Bank.
Building Outgrown
The tremendous growth of the association following World War II resulted in a remodeling of its building in 1951 and the construction of the six-story Savings Center Building in 1955. The association moved into the Chamber of Commerce building at 207 E. Main St. in August 1955 and back into the new structure at Higgins and Broadway Jan. 12, 1957. The building was designed by Fox, Ballas & Barrow and was constructed by the Pew Construction Co.
H. A. Houston became secretary of the association Jan. 1, 1921, serving until his death in 1927. Chris A. Rupp followed as secretary from Feb. 16, 1927, until his death in 1940, and R. J. Fremou has been secretary-treasurer since March 25, 1940.
Officers re-elected Jan. 17, 1960, are Dixon, president; J. F. Hoon and L. E. Bunge, vice presidents; Fremou, secretary-treasurer and managing officer; Donovan Worden, attorney since (1936); Betty Hanger, assistant secretary, and Harold H. Hanger, assistant treasurer.
Looking toward the future the association this year purchased a block of land between North and Kensington avenues near Brooks street for establishment of an agency where the public can make savings investments and loan payments.