The History of Banks in the St. Cloud Area

Banks have been around in Central Minnesota since the 1860s.  Mark Bragelman from Liberty Bank Minnesota joined me on WJON to talk about how banks have evolved over the years in the St. Cloud area.

First National Bank

First National Bank is a historic building at the corner of St. Germain and 5th Avenue.  Bragelman says the bank closed in 1925 and has had many uses since then.  The Grand Mantel was in that building and now the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation is housed in the building with MC's Dugout in the basement.

Plaza Park Bank

The early banks in the area included "The State Bank of Rockville" which later moved to Waite Park, became Plaza Park Bank and is now Deerwood Bank.  The Eickhoffs owned Plaza Park Bank.

St. Cloud National Bank

St. Cloud National Bank on East St. Germain Street later became Northwestern National Bank which became Norwest and was acquired by Wells Fargo in the 1990s.

Bremer Bank

First American Bank was located across from the Library at 11th and St. Germain.  It became Bremer Bank which is now a Division of Old National Bank out of Indiana through a merger.  Bragelman says when it was Bremer Bank it was owned by the Bremer Trust which was unusual at the time.

Zapp Bank

Zapp Bank was located on 7th and St. Germain and then 9th and St. Germain.  Zapp was later sold to U.S. Bank.  Security Federal Savings and Loan became part of Metropolitan Bank which sold to U.S. Bank.

Citizens State Bank

Citizens State Bank was on Benton Drive in Sauk Rapids.  It was acquired by Union Bank and then became part of Northwestern National (Norwest) and now Wells Fargo.

Liberty Bank

Liberty underwent numerous changes over the years.  Bragelman says when he started there 51 years ago it was Liberty Loan and Thift, then it became Liberty Savings Bank, then Liberty Bank and now Liberty Bank Minnesota.  He says it changed to Liberty Bank Minnesota because there was confusion with Liberty Banks in other states.

Loan Companies

Bragelman says loan companies were a necessity in the early to mid 1900s.  He says this was before credit cards.  He says if you wanted to buy an appliance, for instance and didn't have the money, you took out a loan with a loan company.  Those finance companies in St. Cloud included Phoenix Budget Loans, Thorpe Credit, The Money Shop, Citizens Loan, Household Finance Corporation, Finance America and Beneficial Finance.

Stearns Bank

Stearns Bank used to be the State Bank of Albany.  Bragelman says they moved to Waite Park and it was known for being commercial oriented.

Farmers & Merchants State Bank

Farmers & Merchants is headquartered out of Pierz.  Bragelman says Farmers & Merchants began like many banks in small towns, to work with farmers.

Melrose Credit Union

Melrose Credit Union is now known as Magnifi Financial and is in many small towns in Central Minnesota.

Bragelman says in the United States today there are about 4,400 charter banks with approximately 30,000 branches.

If you'd like to listen to my 2-part conversation with Mark Bragelman, click below.