We’re on Route 1 running through Woodbridge, Virginia today. Despite a lot of demolition and construction (more road widening than redevelopment), this stretch is a time capsule of old-school roadside architecture.

You might not be able to guess, from this angle, how this building started life:

But now you probably can:

And, a few years back proves your likely guess:

There are lots of old-fashioned (1960s or 1970s) banks scattered around the older highway stretches in the D.C. area. And, I suppose, anywhere. Here’s one, for example, further north on Route 1 as well:

Or this one on Little River Turnpike:

Some are probably one-offs, while others are forgotten brand-centric or “model” buildings, i.e. they belonged to a now-defunct company, and there were once, and might still be, a number of them out there.

This building may have been unique, a kind flagship structure, but it was built by a long-gone local bank chain. From the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation’s Facebook account:

In September 1963 across from Marumsco Plaza in Woodbridge, the First National Bank of Quantico opened their newest (fifth) branch. The Woodbridge branch was lavishly described the next year in the American Institute of Architect’s Virginia Chapter magazine by its designer, Arlington architect Allen J. Dickey. Fifty parking spaces, terrazzo floors, eight tellers, two drive thru windows, with room for expansion were all listed features of this “Colonial flavor” building. 1st National of Quantico merged with the National Bank of Manassas then Virginia National Bank in 1969.

Apparently “Colonial flavor” was a direct quote from an article at the time. I’m not sure who else would make that connection. It’s not exactly Mount Vernon!

There’s very little on the company online, which as far as I can tell, never had more than five branches and never moved beyond Prince William County. I can’t find any list of addresses, so I’m not sure if any of the other four structures are still standing.

Here’s a snippet from a 1969 United States Attorneys Bulletin issue, one of the only online hits for the company’s name:

On May 14, 1969, civil action was filed in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, challenging the proposed acquisition by The National Bank of Manassas, Manassas, Virginia, of The First National Bank of Quantico, Quantico, Virginia, an independent four-branch bank in Prince William County, which lies southwest of Arlington and Fairfax counties, Virginia.

That’s really cool: it gives you a sense of how local banking, and a lot of other commerce, was. We’ve seen this increase in the scale or concentration of business, which I believe somehow works in tandem with the increase in store size and the distance between things. I really think that scale is an under-discussed element of land use, transportation, and business.

I’ve written about that before and I’m sure I’ll write about it again. But today is just a cool old building with more of a story than it looks like.

Related Reading:

Chicago Style

Banking Your Shot

A Magnificent Liquor Store in High Bridge, NJ

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