HISTORY

The First National Bank of Woodstown, the third edifice of this institution chartered in 1864, was completed in 1892 and is a testament to the growing influence of banking in the US economy in the late-nineteenth century. The Romanesque Revival building dominates the main intersection of Woodstown. The two-and-a-half story building looms large with an open-arched tower rising seventy feet above the entrance. The tower is surmounted by a slate-clad irregular octagonal pyramidal roof capped by a weather vane. At the angled corner entrance, arched windows on the first-floor level are aligned beneath rectangular windows at the second story level, and a series of lunette windows in the attic repeats the Romanesque arch motif. A pedimented parapet conceals the sloped roof. The First National Bank of Woodstown served in that capacity into the fourth quarter of the twentieth century, undergoing an interior “modernization” in the 1940s. It was fully restored by the First National Bank of Toms River in 1987, only to be abandoned again four years later when that bank failed. 

It then became a branch of Sun National Bank that lasted until about 2007 and was used as law offices for a while after that. In 2013 the vacant building was sold at auction to a group of investors. In the meantime, the most prominent building in downtown Woodstown sat vacant and deteriorating until being purchased in August of 2021 History and Restoration: The brownstone and Perth Amboy Pompeian brick bank was designed by Philadelphia architect Albert W. Dilks in 1891 in the Romanesque Revival style, a Victorian interpretation of a ninth-to-twelfth century European style. The original owner, the First National Bank of Woodstown, paid $17,000 to have the structure built. In 1987 Watson and Henry Associates, an Architectural / engineering firm from Bridgeton, NJ was hired to research, plan supervise the restoration. During the preliminary investigation of the building, portions of the 1947 modernization where removed. Removal of acoustic-tile ceiling revealed the remains of the original pressed metal ceiling. Further exploration discovered the original fireplace opening behind a plaster wall, and the old mosaic tile vestibule floor under modern vinyl-tile flooring. Most excitingly workmen uncovered the elaborately-painted original vault door, still intact behind another plaster wall.  The most unexpected and intriguing discovery of the project was stumbled upon by accident in a dark corner of the bank’s basement. 

One of Woodstown’s most famous native sons was the artist Everett Shinn, a member of the “Ashcan School” whose members painted realistic urban subjects in the early years of the 20th century. His father was Isaiah Shinn, an employee of the First National Bank of Woodstown for most of his working life. In the mortar of the stone basement wall, along with the initials of several workmen, was found the elaborate inscription:  “E. SHINN SON OG I.C. SHINN PAYING TELLER (sic) WIND AND RAIN AUG (?) 189(?) The inscription is surrounded by a cross-hatched “frame” This work of art was produced by Shinn when he was in his early teens, just before he left for Philadelphia to start his art career as an artist.