First Northern Bank

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First Northern Bank

Address:
48 Main Street
Winters, CA 95694
Phone:(530) 795-4501

Lobby Hours
Mon - Thur 9 am – 5 pm
Fri 9 am – 6 pm

HISTORY
First Northern Bank was established in 1910, and has remained faithful to its roots as an institution formed to address specific personalized needs. First Northern continues to serve such needs with a strong commitment to superior personal service, and commitment to support and reinvest in each of the communities the Bank serves. The Bank continues to maintain its commitment as a full service community bank serving the business, professional, personal, and real estate requirements of the people in Solano, Yolo, Sacramento and Placer Counties, with a reach into neighboring El Dorado County.

The Bank opened for business on February 1, 1910. The Bank’s corporate offices and main branch are in Dixon, Solano County. The Bank has 11 full service branches located in Dixon, Winters, Downtown Sacramento, Roseville, Auburn, Davis, West Sacramento, Vacaville (two locations), Fairfield and Woodland. First Northern Bank has Real Estate Loan Offices in Davis, Roseville and Folsom, and an SBA Loan Department and Asset Management & Trust Department in Sacramento. The Investment & Brokerage Services Department is located in Folsom, with additional offices in Auburn, Davis and Fairfield. First Northern offers a wide range of SBA, real estate, commercial, agricultural and consumer loans, as well as a full array of non-FDIC insured investment and brokerage products and services.

Back in 1910, a group of Dixon folks believed they weren’t getting the kind of banking services they needed and decided to do something about it. On January 20th of that year, 25 men and women met at the Dixon Alfalfa Land Company. In the spirit of the independent, do-it-yourself tradition of their farming community, these men and women organized their state-chartered savings bank, Northern Solano Bank.
The Bank was to be backed with all local capital and no outside investment or
affiliation. Those present elected a Board of Directors, and authorized $100,000
of capital stock of which they paid in $60,000. They then appointed a committee
to go to San Francisco to obtain a safe and other necessary supplies.

On January 31st, Henry R. Timm of Dixon was elected the first president of the newly organized Northern Solano Bank. February 1, 1910, just twelve (12) days after the organizational meeting, Northern Solano Bank opened for business in a remodeled former ice cream parlor located at approximately “185 North First St.,” Dixon, with a staff of two.

New depositors were subtly persuaded with notes in the personal column of the Dixon Tribune newspaper… “Have you opened that account with Northern Solano Bank yet? Eighty of your friends have started, why not you?”

By March 1910, the Bank had 93 accounts with deposits totaling $75,304.55. Two months later there were 180 depositors representing $101,648.84 in accounts. The following year, the Bank had purchased “the Old Corner” property at North First and B Streets. The coveted location was secured after heated bidding against the Bank of Dixon (Bank of Dixon was purchased by Bank of Italy, which then became Bank of America). A portion of the structure was torn down and replaced by a new bank building and Northern Solano Bank moved from the former ice cream parlor into the new banking quarters in May of 1911. First Northern Bank’s corporate offices and main branch are at this same site today and dominate the block, but back then the Bank rented office space to a haberdashery, a harness maker, cigar maker, the Wells

Fargo Express Company, and Pacific Telephone.
The new building was one of the two important accomplishments of the year 1911; the Bank received approval of its application to establish the First National Bank of Dixon, a commercial bank, and on January 2, 1912, the Bank was established under a Federal Charter.

For the next 43 years, the Northern Solano Savings Bank, a savings bank and the First National Bank of Dixon, a commercial bank, operated under the same roof with the same Shareholders, Management and Board of Directors. In an effort to increase efficiency of operation, reduce operating expenses, and improve lending capacity, groundwork for consolidation of the First National Bank and Northern Solano Bank began in 1954, and the Comptroller of the Currency gave final approval to consolidate the two Banks into the First National Bank of Dixon, effective as of the close of business Friday, April 8, 1955. At this time, two of the original bank directors were still living, the Bank’s assets totaled $6.2 million and the Bank employed two (2) officers and a staff of eight (8).

The Bank continued to grow and evolve from a small farm bank to a
full service financial institution addressing the needs of the area’s
growing population. In 1962, when the Bank celebrated its 52nd
anniversary, deposits had increased in the past 20 years from $900,000 to $7,700,000. In that same year, the Directors decided to tear down the old Bank building and build a large two-story modern facility. The Dixon Office was housed in temporary quarters across the street during this construction, and with three (3) officers and a staff of 17, moved back to “the Old Corner” in June 1963 into the new state-of-the-art banking facility.

On January l, 1980, in order to reduce Federal Reserve requirements and operate with higher lending limits, the Federal Charter was relinquished in favor of a State Charter, and the Bank’s name was changed to First Northern Bank of Dixon. As with the earlier consolidation, only the name changed. Management, Directors and Shareholders remained the same.

Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender
Copyright© 2005 First Northern Bank. All Rights Reserved