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The First National Bank of Tampa had a long and storied history, beginning in 1883 and ending in 1993. In 1883 Henry B. Plant began building the South Florida Railroad from Sanford to Tampa. During the economic boom that the railroad created, Thomas Carson Taliaferro and his Jacksonville associates decided to open Tampa's first bank. Originally called the Bank of Tampa, it opened on November 3, 1883, with Taliaferro as the chief operating officer. On May 6, 1886, the bank received its national charter and changed its name to the First National Bank of Tampa.
The bank was instrumental in the early economic development of Tampa. Under the Bank of Tampa's leadership, the Tampa Board of Trade donated funds in 1886 for Vincente Ybor to relocate the cigar industry from Key West to Tampa. During the Florida land boom of the 1920s, many new banks opened in Tampa but later failed when the "great crash" came. Eventually eight banks failed in the Tampa area and the First National Bank of Tampa took over their operations. In 1924 construction began of the first modern skyscraper in Tampa, the 13-story First National Bank of Tampa Building.
On April 22, 1969, First Financial Corporation became a registered bank holding company. As a result, the First National Bank of Tampa and the subsidiaries of the Union Security & Investment Company, a bank holding company, became members of the First Financial group of banks. This included the Broadway National Bank of Tampa, the Second National Bank of Tampa, as well as banks in Lakeland and Brooksville. By 1971 First National Bank of Tampa had become the second largest bank in Florida and there were nine banks in the First Financial family.
The acquisition of banks by First Financial continued throughout the 1970s, including the acquisition of Lewis State Bank in Tallahassee, the oldest state bank in Florida, on January 31, 1974. On October 1, 1976 the name of the First National Bank of Tampa changed to the First National Bank of Florida.
The Florida Legislature passed a law in 1975 permitting branch banking in Florida. This allowed the First National Bank of Florida to merge with banks in Tampa and expand branches throughout the area. On July 1, 1977 the First Financial Corporation changed its name and became First Florida Banks, Inc. By the 1980s, First Florida operated a network of 65 banking offices with assets of $2.5 billion. This was the largest banking operation on Florida's west coast.
In 1985 the unit banks merged into one bank, First Florida Bank, N.A. In 1993 Barnett Banks, Inc. of Jacksonville acquired First Florida Banks, Inc. This ended the 110-year history of what was once Tampa's flagship bank.
Summary:
This collection consists of financial records and historical records of the First National Bank of Tampa and the bank holding companies with which First National Bank was affiliated: Union Security & Investment Company, First Financial Corporation, and First Florida Banks, Inc. The collection provides valuable information on the growth and development of banking in Tampa and Florida's west coast, the history of Tampa, and the problems of banking in Florida, especially in the turbulent period of bank acquisition and mergers in the 1970s through the early 1990s.
Subseries 1 contains annual reports of the First National Bank of Tampa (1959-1968), the First Financial Corporation (1969-1976), and the First Florida Banks, Inc. (1977-1991). The reports give statistical information on the financial condition of the bank or corporation. In addition, the reports usually give a narrative description of the financial condition of the bank and the state of the economy in general.
Subseries 2 contains financial records of the First National Bank of Tampa and its related bank holding companies. The records date from 1885 to 1977, although the bulk of the records are from the 1890s to 1950s. Subject matter includes bank agreements with the Federal Reserve; bank agreements with other banks; bank security information, including bank alarms, bank locks, and code books; bank insurance; and bank shortages and swindles. This series also contains specific financial records such as mortgages (1890-1930), stock certificates (1886-1964), gold bonds (1927), and certificates of indebtedness (1901-1927).
Subseries 3 contains the minutes (1886-1933) of the First National Bank of Tampa. The first volume contains the years 1886-1919, the second volume contains 1919-1928, and the third volume contains 1929-1933. Beginning in the early 1900s the minutes begin to discuss which notes may be regarded as a loss, the rates of interest other banks in Tampa were charging, and how the Bank of Tampa should compete. Also included in the minutes are correspondence and resolutions with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the United States Treasury in Washington, D.C. By the mid-1920s, the minutes include discussion on the acquisition of failed banks in the Tampa region and on the poor state of the economy in Florida.
Subseries 4 contains historical records such as biographies, newsletters, newspapers, photographs, scrapbooks, and artifacts. The materials date from 1874 -1992, although the bulk of the material is from the 1900s to the 1970s. Of special note is a collection of historical miscellaneous papers (Boxes 14 and 15), which document the establishment and development of the First National Bank of Tampa and include many historically significant documents, including the oldest item in this collection, an 1874 promissory note. The photographs primarily cover the period from the 1930s to 1980s.
Finding Aids:
Folder listing available. 0
Additional Physical Form:
Reproduction Note:
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Ownership/Custodial History:
This collection was received from Barnett Banks, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida, which obtained these records when First Florida was acquired by Barnett Banks in 1993. First Florida Banks, Inc. was the corporation into which the First National Bank of Tampa evolved.
Publication Note:
General Note:
This collection was arranged and described from materials obtained from Barnett Banks, Inc. when the Barnett Bank records were transferred to the Florida State Archives between 1999 and 2002.
Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Bank buildings Florida Bank holding companies Florida. Bank management Florida. Bank mergers Florida Banks and banking History Florida.
Financial records. aat Mortgages. aat Annual reports. aat Minutes. aat Clippings. aat Ledgers. aat Photographs. aat
Tampa (Fla.)
Added Entries
Taliaferro family.
Taliaferro, Thomas Carson, 1859-1927
Taliaferro, Edmund Pendleton, 1892-1954
Ferguson, Chester Howell, 1908-1983
First Financial Corporation (Tampa, Fla.)
First National Bank of Tampa (Tampa, Fla.)
Barnett Banks
First Florida Banks, Inc. (Tampa, Fla.)
for detailed listing.