Rebuilding in Brick
In 1916 the Gardner State Bank moved into this new two-story brick building, located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Main & Elm Streets. Construction of the bank completed the rebuilding of the center of Gardner's downtown business district. Edwin Eaton, editor of the Gardner Gazette, recalled that when he came to town in 1904 “most of the business buildings were of frame.” Several fires in that decade destroyed most of these early structures. By the time Eaton retired in 1942, he noticed that “the old frame buildings have vanished and in their place are modern brick buildings.”
These modern brick buildings anchored the central corners of Gardner’s business district. The first substantial masonry structure was the Farmers’ Bank, built in 1905 on the northeast corner. Then in 1908 the Masonic Building was rebuilt in brick on the southeast corner. In the same year that the Gardner State Bank was constructed, a commercial building was rebuilt in brick on the northwest corner. This one-story structure housed the Bigelow-Foster Mercantile Company and other businesses. These four buildings still define the center of the Gardner downtown district.
M.F. Bray was president of the Gardner State Bank and Homer O. Craig was cashier in 1915. At that time, Gardner State Bank had deposits of only $122,000 compared to $262,000 for its rival across the street, the Farmers’ Bank. When the two banks consolidated in May 1926, they continued operation out of the Gardner State Bank building. The building remained the financial center of the community until 1967 when a modern facilty was built.
--ALBUM vol. 7, no. 2 (winter 1994)