The growth in the banking business in West Branch was a key indicator of the economic prosperity that came to Cedar County during the "Golden Era of American Agriculture." For 10 years, the Citizens' Savings Bank had conducted business in its brick banking house on West Main Street, a building constructed in 1898. In that decade, the bank's assets had grown from $20,000 to $121,000, and a new bank building was deemed a necessity. The new building was a source of pride for the community, and its construction replaced a run-down, wood-frame building that for years had been home to a series of hardware stores. "The old building so long known as the 'hardware corner' has been wrecked and now remains only a memory," The West Branch Times newspaper reported on April 2, 1908. "Many different firms and individuals have dealt out hardware from this building but the ruthless hand of time has rendered it unfit for a place of business and must give way to progress and up-to-date ways."

Work on the building was plagued by problems, including one problem linked to the prosperity then being enjoyed by area farmers. The good times that began in West Branch in the 1890s had gotten even better. High grain prices and low lumber prices resulted in an epidemic of barn-building that created a shortage of carpenters for projects such as the new Citizens' Savings Bank building. In May 1908, the bank's officers decided the construction bids were too high and ordered the architect to rethink the project with an eye toward thrift. There were more problems. In June a survey showed that George S. Randall's buggy and implement house north of the bank's Downey Street building site had been erected 10 inches onto the bank's corner lot. As construction plans required the full use of the lot, Randall's buggy shop had to be moved. The problems didn't end there. Heavy rains delayed the stonecutters' work on the foundation, but, by mid-August, the first-floor joists were in place and the bricklayers were on the job. By late September, a layer of gravel was spread on the new building's flat roof.

The new bank building meant a new doctor for West Branch. One of the three suites of offices on the new bank building's second floor would be occupied by Dr. J. Hill, a 1907 graduate of St. Joseph Medical College. Hill had been practicing medicine in the Johnson County community of Hills, 25 miles southwest of West Branch. On New Year's Day, 1909, J.E. Larson moved his real estate, insurance and loan business into the front suite of offices. The office suite on the east end of the building had been outfitted as a new dental office for Dr. M.W. Munger, who had been pulling teeth in West Branch for years at other locations.

The bank moved into its new building over the weekend of January 9-10, 1909. A few days after a 7,500-pound Mosler safe was wheeled around the corner from the old bank building and installed, the bank's furniture, which had been shipped to Cedar Rapids for refinishing, was returned and moved into the building. "They are now at home in as cozy and up-to-date rooms as any bank in eastern Iowa," The West Branch Times reported on January 14, 1909. "They have a large vault and have installed a lot of steel safety deposit boxes which will be rented to customers at a reasonable rate, with a convenient counter nearby where the contents can be looked over in privacy. Back of the vault is a consultation room where matters can be talked over with customers, and in the rear is a director's room which is of good size and well lighted. The building is heated by steam throughout and is a model of comfort and convenience."

A Victim of the Great Depression

The Citizens' Savings Bank would remain in its new location for 25 years. Although it would survive a post-war collapse of farm prices that saw the $2 corn of 1918 become the 15-cent corn of 1921, the bank would not survive the Great Depression. On August 24, 1934, the Citizens' Savings Bank would be absorbed by the West Branch State Bank under a reorganization plan that created a new First State Bank. Once a downtown showpiece, the proud new home of a growing bank would later become T.A. Moore's real estate and insurance agency and W.B. Anderson's funeral home.