Profiles In Business Excellence: Luzerne Bank

     One of the biggest challenges in the banking industry is simply staying alive and independent. Luzerne Bank has defiedthe odds and this year is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
     The Bank’s history shares our community’s history. In the early 1900s, once rich and fertile farmlands of the West Side gave way to emerging neighborhoods and thriving commercial industries. Coal mining and lumber mills established themselves as major industry players while flour, feed, lace, and silk mills played a supporting role. People also began to move beyond their neighborhoods and with the advent of electric streetcars, travel was made easier between      Downtown Wilkes-Barre and the West Side communities.
     In 1907, the Wyoming Valley was prospering. A group of men realized that there was a need for a local bank to serve the needs of the West Side’s growing populace and trades – at that time one would have to travel to Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square for banking services.      The original organizers: Henry Clay Johnson, a Burgess of Luzerne and owner of Johnson’s Hardware; John Butler Reynolds, builder of the first electric railway in the Wyoming Valley; Sherman P. Frantz, a well-known butcher and purveyor of a “first-class market”; Ira T. Honeywell, furniture dealer and undertaker; Attorney Granville J. Clark, organizer of the Tunkhannock & Wyoming Valley Telephone Co.; Harry W. Ruggles, owner of Ruggles Lumber Company; and associates: William Freas, Stephen Lukesh, and David Good opened Luzerne Bank in November of that year.
     However, it took a continued effort for the Bank to survive. In November of 1907, a national financial crisis swept the country – The Panic of 1907. While this economic calamity focused on trust companies of New York City, it nevertheless affected banks nationwide. Weathering the circumstances, Calvin Perrin, Luzerne Bank’s first chairman, recorded in November of 1908 that 817 accounts had been opened with deposits of $178, 642 (nearly $4 million by today’s standards).
     The Bank continued its steady growth for the next 20 years. During the Great Depression of 1929, chairman William J. Parry steered the Bank through one of the greatest economic catastrophes of modern history. Although the banking system at this time was very fragile, Luzerne Bank itself emerged barely scathed. Parry reported in a 1932 letter to shareholders that although banks in Wilkes-Barre had closed or found themselves in dire straights, Luzerne Bank experienced only a handful of customer withdrawals.
     In 1932, the Bank acquired troubled Merchants & Miners State Bank of Luzerne, increasing its assets and deposits. On November 7, 1934, a week short of its 27th anniversary, Luzerne Bank suffered a major setback – a disastrous fire destroyed the Bank’s Main Street Luzerne location. Despite the destruciton, the vault was found safe and sound.      Undaunted, the Bank reopened within 48 hours in temporary headquarters. In April of 1935, the Bank saw its way to a rebuilt headquarters on its original location where it remains to this day.
     Parry continued to lead the Bank’s Board of the Directors until his death in 1947. Subsequent chairmen included Guy W. Moore, William Parry Gunster, M. Stanley Johnson, John M. Moore, Robert J. Hughes, Allan M. Kluger, Louis F. Goeringer, and current Board Chairman Joseph E. Kluger.
     Bank presidents and CEOs, originally known as cashiers and later executive vice presidents, included George M. Harris (with a starting salary of $100 per month in 1907), C.F. Schlingmann, W.W. Burleigh, William D. Taylor, William Hawke, John J. Kearney, William V. Leandri, and Robert C. Snyder. Today, Luzerne Bank serves the community with six offices serving the West Side, Back Mountain, Plains, and downtown Wilkes-Barre.
     In celebration of Luzerne Bank’s centennial, President Robert Snyder finds it difficult to mask the excitement an anniversary brings. Snyder, a man of many talents including musician, golfer, and aircraft pilot, plans to celebrate the past 100 years with an eye on the next 100. Centennial events will celebrate not only the Bank but also the region and its people.
     For the first event, Luzerne Bank will host a portrait exhibition of early Wyoming Valley leaders, titled “Eminent Wilkes-Barreans.” The exhibition will showcase the region’s history through the accomplishments of our area’s early leaders. Luzerne Bank’s Director of Marketing Anthony T.P. Brooks said the overall goal is to educate and reinforce local pride through leadership.
     The second event is bound to please the memorabilia collector in us all: “The History of Banking in the Wyoming Valley – from Piggy Banks to the Internet.” Brooks is assembling various items from a long-gone banking era. The first-of-its-kind display in the Wyoming Valley will showcase items including piggy banks, colorful 19th-century bank checks, posting machines, a collection of Rifkin bank bags, an aged ATM machine, and much more. Both exhibitions will be in the Grand Lobby of the Public Square office.
     Luzerne Bank remains committed to being a locally owned independent bank and is very proud to have inherited the title as the oldest banking institution in Luzerne County and remains dedicated to community involvement. Surviving fires, floods, economic depressions, the onslaught of merger-mania, and mega-store banks, Luzerne Bank has proven that in order to help a community you must know the community.
     Happy Birthday, Luzerne Bank.