Banking on Downtown: The National Bank of Brunswick
This article originally appeared in the January 2025 edition of Discover Downtown, a publication of The Brunswick News. Story and photo colorizations by Josh Dukes I’ve written a few times about how much downtown Brunswick is hopping these days. Inevitably someone mentions, “imagine if the Oglethorpe Hotel was still here – just think of what that could be used for now!” That is of course true, but there are a few other landmarks that Newcastle lost to the wrecking ball as midcentury modern aesthetics took hold in the 1950s. One jewel at the top of my list of favorite lost spaces is the National Bank of Brunswick building, which once stood at 1509 Newcastle Street. Bank employees circa 1921. L to R- Myddleton Harris, James Oliver Taylor, John Ralston, E.V. Poole, Elisha Johnson, Harris S Evans, Edgar H Ware. Courtesy of Lisa Taylor The National Bank of Brunswick was organized in 1894, with H. W. Reed serving as the first president and prominent businessman C...