"Dating" Citizens Bank

Norman Connell

 

(Updated, December, 2024)

Norman Connell (Mooresville High School, Class of 1957) was president and CEO of Citizens Bank from 1975 until his retirement in 2001.   Norman started his career at Citizens Bank in Mooresville, Indiana in 1961 following his discharge from the U.S. Air Force.  He saved some undated, unidentified photos showing Citizens Bank when it was located on the southeast corner of Main and Indiana Streets in downtown Mooresville.  How can we date those pictures?

Knowing when Citizens Bank was at this location is a first step.  According to a Mooresville Public Library (MPL) handout, Citizens Bank occupied 3 East Main Street from 1931 to 1966.    That is a fairly large time range, however.  So our next step is to examine the photos themselves for dating clues.  (Click on the images below to enlarge them.)

(As a quick sidebar:  This structure in the photo below was commonly known as the Bass Building, constructed around 1890 and demolished in 2022 after being destroyed by the April 2020 tornado.)

There's a story behind the clock hanging on the side of the building (above).  We'll talk more about that at the end of this blog post (scroll to the bottom if you want to skip ahead; otherwise, read on).

This exterior shot of Citizens Bank (above) shows late 1950s automobiles, as well as Copeland Appliances, in the background.  The same MPL handout lists Copeland Appliances at 16 South Indiana Street (which appears in the background) from 1956-1974.  (Copeland Appliances was also located at 18-20 South Indiana Street between 1950-1974, but that's further down, out-of-shot.)  So, given these three bits of information, we can safely assume that Mr. Connell's Citizens Bank photos were taken between 1956-1966, the latter date being the last Citizens Bank was situated at the location shown. 

Can we further narrow the time frame?  Let's look at some interior photos of Citizens Bank.

 

See the calendar in the photo above?  It says, Saturday, July 20.  The twentieth of July fell on a Saturday in 1957 and in 1963.  That cinches the date.  These photos were taken on Saturday, July 20, 1957 or 1963.  But there's one factor that suggests 1957 as the correct date, and that is the photographers/developers.

 

How do we know that these photos were all taken at the same time?  They are all printed on the same type of photographic paper and appear to have been taken by the same (or a similar) camera.  More to the point, they were taken and/or developed by the same two photographers/developers, Squires Studio and Awbrey's Photo Service, both of Mooresville during the 1950s.  Their stamps appear on the backs of the photographs (see below).

What did Citizens Bank look like inside on Saturday, July 20, 1957?

Here are some Citizens Bank employees who were working that day.  None of the photos identified the persons shown, but thanks to Norman's wife, Ruth Connell, we were able to identify three of them.  You can contact Mooresville Public Library if you recognize any of the others (the library now has these pictures in its Indiana Room's banking vertical file).

Martha Sellars, maybe

Identifying Miss Sellars would be fairly easy--her name plate appeared in the photo--unless, of course, it's somebody else standing at Miss Sellars' window when this photo was taken.  So we would need another photo of Martha Sellars to compare against this one, if we're to be sure that this is Martha Sellars.  Guess that takes us back to square one.  (I seem to recall that Ruth Connell identified Martha Sellers in this picture, but I may be misremembering.  I think that's how I knew her first name was Martha, so I'm prepared to go with Ruth on this one.)

Thelma (Blaschke) Weddle and Ed Fields

 

  

Always identify the people, places, circumstances and dates of your photographs.  They might be of enormous local historical value, especially for historians and researchers.  If  you're reading this article, wouldn't you like to know those details about these "slices" of living history?

The Exterior Clock's History

In the photo (above), there's a clock hanging from the exterior of the building.  Assuming the photo was taken in 1957, we could surmise that Citizens Bank displayed such a clock at that time.  To confirm whether the clock was there then, we could, of course, compare this picture against others shown in digitized copies of Mooresville High School yearbooks from the 1950s and early 1960s, before the bank moved to its present location (in 1967) on North Indiana Street (across the street from 3 East Main Street, where it was in these photos above).  (Mooresville Public Library's Indiana Room has print copies of these yearbooks, if you'd prefer looking through those.)  One thing's for certain:  the clock was there, and it had been, in fact, since 1931, as shown in the photo (below).

1931 Citizens Bank photograph shows the exterior clock (far right)

on the Bass Building (courtesy of Citizens Bank)

Citizens Bank, which began in 1931, acquired the exterior clock from its predecessor, Farmers State Bank, which went out-of-business in 1930.  We know this because we can see the same clock as shown in advertising from 1917 and from check logos from the 1920s.

1917 advertisement from the Mooresville High School yearbook

Counter checks (1920s), with clock shown above entrance

The clock first appeared on the Farmers State Bank building in 1904, when it underwent a major renovation.  You can see the clock hanging above the entrance in this photo (below).

1904 Photo from a Farmers State Bank brochure

(Enlarged below)

You can tell it's the same clock (or, at least, the same exterior casing that holds the clock) if you compare the 1957 Citizens Bank photo with the 1904 Farmers State Bank photo and 1917 advertisement.

When Citizens Bank vacated the Bass Building to move across the street in 1967, the clock apparently didn't accompany them.  At least it doesn't appear in this photo below.

Citizens Bank advertisement photo (1967)

courtesy of Mooresville High School's yearbook,

Wagon Trails

Where did the clock end up, you may wonder?  I certainly did.  Then, one day, I noticed something incredible.  There's a clock atop a post on the south side of West Main Street, next to a parking lot (and a drive-through bank teller building), which is across from Mooresville Public Library's old Carnegie building, which is now used by Citizens Bank (plot point!).

Clock on the South Side of West Main Street

Downtown Mooresville, Indiana

Three photos (above) courtesy of Google Maps (October 2024)

The clock face is approximately the same size as the one shown in the Citizens Bank/Farmers State Bank exterior hanging frame.  What caught my attention was the clock face.  Look carefully at the numbers, especially seven.  Do you see the odd curve at the bottom of the seven?  There's a strong resemblance between the clock face number styles!  Compare the photos (below) and see what you think.

West Main Street Clock

(photo by William R. Buckley)

(December 18, 2024)

Enlargements of the 1957 photo of the exterior clock face

on the Citizens Bank building

Admittedly, it's not a perfect match between clock face number styles shown in the 1957 and 2024 photos, but their similarity is striking, and given the approximate equality in sizes of the clock faces themselves, we might surmise that the clock face currently displayed on West Main Street is the same clock, or, at least, a similarly styled clock, as the one that was once attached to Citizens Bank and, possibly, Farmers State Bank.  It's an intriguing supposition.

But that's not all we have to go by.  A few years ago, during a downtown historic walking tour I gave for patrons of Mooresville Public Library, one woman saw the clock and said that her father, who had once worked at Citizens Bank, had told her that the clock on West Main Street was the same as the hanging clock from pre-1967 Citizens Bank.  Unfortunately, we have misplaced her name, but we think she may have been Norman Connell's daughter (see photo at the beginning of this blog post).  How's that for circling around to where we started?

Mooresville's Movie Mogul

Did you know Mooresville, Indiana had its own movie mogul?  Longtime Mooresville business owner Leon Adler (1906-1986) produced and distributed educational motion pictures for nearly a quarter century.

Adler purchased the National Motion Pictures Company in 1931, producing and distributing industrial and educational films until he sold the business in 1954 to Institutional Cinema Services of New York.  Adler maintained offices in the Holliday Building in Indianapolis but probably also corresponded from his Mooresville residence or business addresses.

Figure 1:  Leon Adler wrote this letter to the DuPont Company offering film distribution services from the National Motion Pictures Company, Adler's film production/distribution business.  Letter courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library (Wilmington, Delaware) and Martin Louis Johnson, Assistant Professor of English & Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The National Motion Pictures Company specialized in educational and industrial films.  One offering was the 1939 short film, Told By a Tooth, which promoted dental hygiene.  The movie is available to watch from the Prelinger Archives, although the digitized copy was derived from somewhat degraded film stock.  There were splices and edits made to the original copy (for example, the end credits have been removed), and the recording is darker than it would have been when originally made and shown.

Told By a Tooth (1939)

Produced by Leon Adler's National Motion Pictures Company

Adler used Mooresville and Morgan County talent and locations to appear in his movies.  Longtime Mooresville resident Barbara Ann Nevins (Barlow) was about seven years old when she appeared in Told By a Tooth (1939), as well as in Why Willy Was Willing to Wash (ca. 1940) and another Adler film (sorry--don't know the title).  She was paid, as were the other actors and actresses appearing in the features, in free merchandise from Adler's Mooresville department store.  In Told By a Tooth, the scene in which a girl purchases a toothbrush was shot in Adler's Department store at 10 West Main Street in downtown Mooresville.  Barbara Barlow mentioned that, many years later, her children saw the films when they were attending school and were "mortified" that their mother appeared in the movies.  Apparently, she had never mentioned to them that she was a "movie star."  Parents embarrass their kids in so many ways.

 

Barbara Ann Nevins (about age 7) in Told by a Tooth (1939) and Barbara in 2024

Adler also used famous Hollywood personnel to produce his movies, such as Academy Award-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby (father of musician David Crosby), as mentioned in an Indianapolis Star article.

Figure 2:  Floyd Crosby came from Hollywood to Mooresville to film two health and education movies for Leon Adler in 1935.  (The Indianapolis Star, Wednesday, May 1, 1935, page 11.)

Figure 3:  Leon Adler presented an NMPC film about George Washington at Noblesville High School in 1932.  The movie was sponsored by the National Bicentennial Commission.  (The Noblesville [Indiana] Ledger, Wednesday, March 9, 1932, page 3.)

Figure 4:  Mr. and Mrs. Leon Adler entertained friends with a preview of a new NMPC movie filmed in the Martinsville area.  (Martinsville [Indiana] Reporter-Times, Thursday, October 27, 1938, page 5.)

Besides producing and distributing movies, Adler was a successful Morgan County business owner.  In 1933, Adler purchased Ad Sellars' dry goods store and operated Adler's Department Store at 10 West Main Street in downtown Mooresville until 1967, when he closed both his Mooresville and Martinsville stores.

Figure 5:  Leon Adler's department store was featured by the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce, which he helped establish in the 1950s, in an article appearing in the June 10, 1965 edition of the Mooresville Times (clipping courtesy of Mooresville Public Library).

Figure 6.  An advertisement for Adler's Department Store in the September 1964 issues of the Mooresville Times (clipping courtesy of Mooresville Public Library).

The Adler family lived in Mooresville from 1933-1955, but they also had a residence in Indianapolis and were active in several charities and organizations.  Adler served as president of the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce and the Mooresville Lions Club, and he served on the board of Mooresville's Citizens Bank.  He helped establish the Mooresville Development Commission and was instrumental in constructing new homes west of Newby Elementary School in Mooresville, which were vital in easing a housing shortage as the town's population steadily grew during the 1960s and 1970s.

Adler's pursuits often had a national, even international, reach.  He was a member of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Labor Zionists of America and served as chairman of the Southeastern Indiana Jewish Welfare Federation.  In 1963 the State of Israel issued Adler a prestigious award for meritorious service.  He supported organized labor, civil rights, and Zionism, speaking and writing about these and other subjects.  He also promoted oratorical contests to encourage improvement in public speaking skills.

In January, 1959, Adler was selected Mooresvillian of the Year for 1958, an honor bestowed annually by the Mooresville Chamber of Commerce in recognition of local civic leaders whose efforts enhanced the Mooresville community.  Adler was extremely popular with townspeople.  "If Leon Adler said he would do something, it was as good as done," reflected longtime Mooresville resident Beth Hensley, who owned and operated a "Jack and Jill" children's clothing store near Adler's department store in downtown Mooresville during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Figure 7.  Leon Adler was selected the 1958 Mooresvillian of the Year (Mooresville Times, January 15, 1959) (image courtesy of Mooresville Public Library).  Several of Adler's obituaries incorrectly stated that he received this award in 1954.

Figure 8.  Leon Adler's senior picture from The Arsenal Cannon, 1923 Indianapolis Arsenal Technical High School Yearbook (courtesy of Ancestry Library Edition).

Born in Shelbyville, Indiana in 1906, Adler graduated from Indianapolis Arsenal Technical High School in 1923.  Adler passed away at St. Vincent Hospital in 1986 at the age of 80 years.  Learn more about him from Mooresville Public Library's digitized vertical files, as well as from these obituaries below.

 Figures 9 & 10.  Leon Adler's obituaries from the Jewish Post, July 16 & 23, 1986.

We've prepared a local history video featuring Leon Adler (click below to watch).  We also have this slideshow.
 

Mooresville Historic Houses

We have a new online handout featuring historic houses in Mooresville, Indiana. Thanks to the Morgan County History & Genealogy Association for the circa 1880s photographs of photographer J. P. Calvert (1842-1917).  Thanks to Mooresville Public Library for the additional photos of Calvert's home and studio.