A couple of weeks ago, we very quietly celebrated our 110th Anniversary with a brief mention of it on Facebook. But, what only a few people noticed in the post is how our past is influencing our future.
In the early 1900s, we settled into our first location – a small brick building on the corner of 10th Street and Center Avenue right in the heart of Oostburg. With total capital of $25,000 we weren’t the biggest, but we served the community of around 350 people.
Our home was charming – with a water pump on the side of the building and a tie up post for horses in front – this was a couple of months before Ford started producing its Model T and it would be a long time before we would need to build a parking lot. Our building also had one very unique characteristic – its windows.
Above each of the lower and upper front windows there were square windows divided into eight isosceles triangle panes. It’s a pattern that’s fairly common in quilting, but not so much with windows. We don’t know if it was planned, or it just seemed like a good idea at the time, but they certainly made our building stand out.
When we moved into our new building in the mid-1960s, we took the windows with us, keeping them stored away for a half a century.
Last year, when we were developing our new brand with the Cedarburg, WI-based Vx Group, we were searching for an icon that represented Oostburg State Bank – an independent modern banking institution that still offers friendly, personalized service – all of the things that go into Banking for Life.
And there it was, sitting in the corner of the storage closet – the window. It was the perfect thing – a symbol that connected our past to our future.
We are excited to have had those windows be a part of our 110 years in business, and that they’ll continue to be a symbol of Oostburg State Bank for the next 110 years, and beyond.
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