Former Amherst bank building has some unusual features

By Justin Faulconer

Published: July 30, 2008

Though she has an indoor job, Crystal McGlinchey often uses brute strength at work.

Each day, the assistant clerk closes shut a heavy vault door at the Town of Amherst Municipal Building on Main Street.

She doesn’t mind.

“I’m getting big muscles,” smiled McGlinchey.

The vault has been used for nearly a century, serving the building in its original role as a bank and currently as a storage place for town records and treasury.

The vault still works well, but the town is working to renovate other parts of the building.

Originally owned by the Farmers Bank of Amherst, the structure was built around 1915, according to records from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. In 1933, it merged with Bank of Amherst. Its name changed but eventually reverted to the Bank of Amherst.

Fidelity American Bank bought it in 1960. Roughly 10 years later, after Fidelity built a new facility, the building was sold to the town.

“It was given to the town, I believe, for a dollar,” said Beidler, a real estate agent in Amherst.

Along with the vault, other remnants of the bank continue to be in use.

Residents drop off utility bills in a slot beside the front door, where bank customers once delivered payments.

Town Manager Jack Hobbs has a top floor office overlooking the chamber room, resembling a bank manager’s.

Council’s chamber is not large enough to accommodate large crowds, but Beidler said that was hardly a major problem during his 11 terms on council. Only a few times, he said, were meetings moved to alternative sites because a large crowd wanted to attend a hearing on a controversial matter.

Once, he said, council decided to announce fair housing laws the town had adopted. A large crowd was hoped for, he said, but not realized.

“We put on the whole dog and pony show, and only two people showed up,” he said.

The renovations to the building so far this year have included a new roof, and heating and air conditioning system.

The carpet has been replaced, Hobbs said, and improvements are under way outside the front door, where a handicapped ramp and new entranceway is being built.

Faulconer covers Amherst for The New Era-Progress and The News & Advance. E-mail him at .