Barnett Bank was an American bank based in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Founded in 1877, it eventually became the largest

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

with over 600 offices and $41.2 billion in deposits. Barnett was purchased by

NationsBank NationsBank was one of the largest banking corporations in the United States, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company named NationsBank was formed through the merger of several other banks in 1991, and prior to that had been through mul ...

in 1997.Ginzl, David: "The Last Days of Barnett", '' Jacksonville Magazine'', October 1998

History

Foundation

William Boyd Barnett was a merchant and a banker in northeast Kansas when he journeyed with his wife to Jacksonville to visit their oldest son in 1875. Sarah Barnett's health improved during their time in Florida, so the Barnetts returned to Kansas, liquidated their assets, and relocated to Jacksonville in March, 1877. Bion, their youngest son, was a senior at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

and withdrew from school to join his parents.Ginzl, David J.: "Barnett: The Story of Florida's Bank" , University of Tampa Press, 2001 In the spring of 1877, the United States was in the middle of the Depression of 1873-79, and Jacksonville already had three banks. The city's population was under 10,000 and there was no infrastructure to support a beginning tourism industry. On May 7, 1877, Barnett opened the Bank of Jacksonville (BoJ) on the corner of Main and Forsyth with $43,000 in capital. William was president, Bion acted as bookkeeper, and one other person was hired as teller/clerk. Most Florida banks at the time were private and unregulated. In spite of being a newcomer and a

Yankee The term ''Yankee'' and its contracted form ''Yank'' have several interrelated meanings, all referring to people from the United States. Their various meanings depend on the context, and may refer to New Englanders, the Northeastern United Stat ...

, Barnett and the new institution slowly gained the people's trust, but at the end of their first year, deposits amounted to only $11,000. Undeterred, William invited his son, Bion Barnett, to be partner and passed along Barnett's five rules of business: # Follow the

Golden Rule The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one would want to be treated by them. It is sometimes called an ethics of reciprocity, meaning that one should reciprocate to others how one would like them to treat the person (not neces ...

. You cannot go wrong treating the other man as you would be treated. # Give a man 50 cents if you can make a dollar out of him. In other words, be liberal in your dealings but always have a net profit. Do not do business at a loss. # If a young man is of good habits - honest, capable, saving, giving close attention to his business and making progress but lacking in capital - help him. The young man of today is the businessman of tomorrow. # Never make a promise you cannot and do not fulfill. Investigate carefully before granting a line of credit; once granted, there being no adverse change in your client's financial condition, fulfill your promise. Your word must be as good as your bond. # Watch your expense account and your losses; your profits will take care of themselves. According to Bion Barnett, "I have never found a flaw in it. It is good advice today."

Fate

A conversation between Bion Barnett and Henry L’Engle changed the bank's fortunes. L'Engle, the Duval County Tax Collector, was annoyed because the bank holding the county's funds charged $6.25 for each transfer to New York City banks. Bion immediately offered to waive the fee if Duval County deposited their funds in the Bank of Jacksonville. L'Engle agreed, and the BoJ began to prosper. Within a year, L'Engle was appointed Treasurer for the State of Florida, and the state's accounts were transferred to BoJ. Within a few years, operating capital exceeded $150,000, and the Barnetts applied for and received a ''National Charter'', pursuant to the

National Bank Act The National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were two United States federal banking acts that established a system of national banks chartered at the federal level, and created the United States National Banking System. They encouraged developmen ...

. This allowed them to become the ''National Bank of Jacksonville''. The institution's deposits exceeded $1 million in 1893.

20th century

The Great Fire of 1901 destroyed most of the city, but the National Bank of Jacksonville was the only bank still standing. William Boyd Barnett died September 2, 1903, and Bion renamed the institution Barnett Bank in his father's honor. In 1926, the Barnett National Bank Building was opened to house the company's operations and was built in the popular Chicago school style of architecture. At 18 stories, it was the tallest skyscraper in the city and remained so until 1954. The bank survived various economic downturns and crises, including the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, ultimately emerging stronger. When Barnett died in 1958 at the age of 101, Barnett Bank had come to be known as "Florida's Bank". The bank continued to grow with the acquisition of many more Florida banks over the next two decades. However, under Chairman of the Board Hugh Jones, Barnett Bank was slow to become involved in the rapidly evolving interstate banking mergers of the 1970s and 80s. Though eventually Barnett did make some purchases of out-of-state banks, starting in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, it did so without growing its own

brand recognition Brand awareness is the extent to which customers are able to recall or recognize a brand under different conditions. Brand awareness is one of the two key components of brand knowledge, as defined by the associative network memory model. It plays ...

. While technically, according to federal statute, one bank cannot own another bank in another state, they can both be owned by the same

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

. Barnett, like other banks, grew across state lines in this way. But unlike other such banks, Barnett did not change the names of its new holdings, keeping the Barnett name exclusively within Florida. Ultimately, this weakened the company's

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

, as the perception lingered that Barnett was not a major player in the area of

mergers Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

and acquisitions. Despite its slower than average growth, the holding company built a new corporate headquarters building in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Jacksonville: announced in 1987 and occupied in 1990. Hugh Jones then retired in 1993. At 42 stories, the Barnett Center was the highest building in Jacksonville, and the second-tallest in Florida as of 2010. As of 2019, the

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

Barnett Center (now, the Bank of America Tower) remains the tallest building in Jacksonville.

Demise

For many years, it looked like Barnett would be the only bank of Jacksonville's "Big Three" to ignore the lure of big money from nationwide banking conglomerates. Atlantic National Bank of Florida was the first to sell out to

First Union First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial bank, commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the Eastern United States, eastern U.S. First Union also provided various other financial services, incl ...

in 1985/7, followed by Florida National Bank in 1990. But in 1997, Barnett CEO Charles Rice, who was named Jacksonville's highest paid individual among public companies at $4.5 million (excluding stock options), offered the company up for sale, just six weeks after a month spent at a

drug rehabilitation Drug rehabilitation is the process of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and amphetamines. The general int ...

facility for treatment of

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

. Charlotte-based

made the highest offer, and the deal was done. At the time of Barnett's demise, the company had an annual payroll of a quarter billion dollars spread among 6,800 employees. Rice, who had publicly stated more than a decade earlier that he would never sell Bion Barnett's bank to any of its competitors, became board chairman of NationsBank. However, less than a year later, NationsBank purchased Bank of America and took the Bank of America name, and Rice himself was forced out as chairman, becoming vice chairman of corporate development. More than a few of those who lost their jobs found the situation ironic. After retiring in early 2001, Rice died in a swimming pool accident in December 2008.

Volunteering

In the 1980s, CEO Hugh Jones began a corporate-wide program of giving back to their communities. All the bank's employees, which numbered 1,000, were encouraged to donate time to the charitable cause of their choosing. The ''Community Involvement Initiative'' resulted in over 40,000 hours of assistance to worthy projects where they lived.

Naming dispute

In late 2000 financier Reid Mack secured the Florida corporate names to three former Barnett Bank entities Barnett Mortgage Company, Barnett Lending Services, and Barnett Credit Services. Bank of America fought over the intellectual property rights to the names, and over the subsequent years Mr. Mack abandoned the possible use to the names.

Historic preservation

The ''Barnett Historic Preservation Foundation, Inc.'' was created in December, 1997, after NationsBank purchased Barnett. Former Barnett president Allen Lastinger joined several other bank officers to create a non-profit organization to preserve and document Barnett's historical legacy. They acquired the company archives containing annual reports, investor presentations, press releases, correspondence, miscellaneous ledgers, videos and account books; then solicited former employees for other material, including photographs, scrapbooks, news clippings, marketing materials and employee publications. Over 70 interviews were conducted which generated 3,000 pages of transcripts that were included in an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

component. In 2001, the Barnett Bank collection was donated to the

State Library and Archives of Florida The State Library and Archives of Florida is a government library with historically significant records of Florida such as private manuscripts and correspondence, local government records, photographs, maps, film clips, and materials that comple ...

, which also holds the Florida State Department of Banking records, as well as records from other defunct banks.

References

External links

Barnett Historic Preservation Foundation

Barnett Banks Collection (Finding Aid)

Barnett Bank of Jacksonville records, 1877-1998 (Finding Aid)
{{Bank of America Bank of America legacy banks Banks disestablished in 1997 Banks established in 1877 Defunct companies based in Florida Defunct banks of the United States Banks based in Jacksonville, Florida American companies established in 1877 Laura Street 1877 establishments in Florida Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange