FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUBUQUE

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DUBUQUE. Iowa's oldest national bank. Opened for business on June 20, 1864, First National Bank was the first nationally chartered bank in Dubuque under the Banking Act of 1864. The deposits the first day totaled $2,261. Of the six banks in operation in Dubuque in 1929, only First National Bank and AMERICAN TRUST AND SAVINGS BANK survived.

Child's bank circa 1930. Photo courtesy: Bob Reding.

The first site of First National Bank

The bank's first location in Dubuque was on the northwest corner of Main and Sixth STREETS in what was known as the Jones Block. This proved a temporary location.

First National Bank's location for 95 years.

The bank soon took possession of a building on the northwest corner of Main and Fifth streets once occupied by Dubuque's branch of the State Bank of Iowa. First National remained in this location for ninety-five years with expansions and modernizations occurring twice.

First National Bank's location after 1962.

By 1962 continued growth left the bank in need of additional space. First National then constructed a modern banking facility on land between Sixth and Seventh Streets on Locust.

During its years of service to the community, First National boasted many "firsts." The bank offered the first Christmas Club Accounts (January 1,1921), the first drive-up teller window and walkup banking (July 6, 1954), the first junior savers' program (June 7, 1962), and the first bank in Dubuque to offer agri-business banking (1964). The merger of Dubuque Thrift Plan, Inc. with First National Bank on January 1, 1955, led to the city's first installment loan department in a bank. In more recent years, First National was first to offer West Dubuque banking (October 28, 1968), North Dubuque banking (July 13, 1971), Asbury area banking (May 24, 1976) and was the first to offer combined banking services with its New Outlooks Club (April 4, 1974). First National initiated computer display terminals that provided customers with instantaneous response to their balance questions (January 1976) and was the first to offer their Automated Central Information File for customer accounts (November 1979). In February 1990, First National became the first area bank to resume limited Saturday service using their Kennedy Road facility.

To encourage growth of business in the community, First National Bank was one of the five initial investors in a venture capital fund designed to encourage small businesses with the potential for rapid growth but without needed capital.

In the early 1990s after it merged with other banking concerns, First National’s name was changed to Hawkeye Bank of Dubuque. A few years later, the bank merged into the Mercantile Bank corporation. In 1999, Mercantile Bank was acquired by Firstar Bank. After Firstar merged with US Bancorp, the banks became known as U.S. BANK, the name the bank carried in 2008.