Published: Friday, May. 22, 2009

Updated: Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009

Bradenton: Scenes from the 1900s

1900: The 20th century began in Bradenton with the opening of the town’s first bank - the Bank of Manatee in Braidentown - on Jan. 1, 1900.

John T. Campbell and Tampa banker T.C. Taliaferro joined forces in 1899 to form the bank, which was housed on the first floor of the Warren Opera House on Main Street. On that first day of business, there were $26,000 in deposits from 44 customers.

Many years later, in 1973, the bank boasted another first, becoming the first bank in Manatee County to offer 24-hour banking service with the Teller 24 ATM system.

The name of the bank was changed to The First National Bank of Bradentown in 1912 and to Ellis First National Bank of Bradenton in 1974. It later became part of the NCNB banking group of North Carolina, and now Bank of America.

The Bank of Manatee in Braidentown was three years older than the city itself, which was incorporated in May 1903.

A.T. Cornwell was the first mayor, and the city dropped the “i” from the name to become Bradentown. When the town got its first post office in 1878, it was commissioned as Braidentown when a postal clerk misspelled the name. The city was called Bradentown from 1903 until 1924, when it dropped the “w” and became Bradenton.

1902: Shannon Funeral Home opened

1903: Braidentown’s first power plant was opened Dec. 29, 1903, by the Manatee Light and Traction Co. The site was the city parking lot where the City Centre, 1005 Barcarrota Blvd., now stands.

1906: Manatee Drug Co. is founded by John James Pelot in the town of Manatee, which would become part of Bradenton in 1944. The store later became Pelot’s Rexall Pharmacy and has been owned and operated by four generations of the Pelot family. The drugstore still is a local landmark at 831 Manatee Ave. E.

1907: City Hall Shoe Shop opens

1907: The Bradentown Library Association is organized and becomes the driving force behind the Carnegie Library on 15th Street West at Fourth Avenue. The Palmetto Library Association follows in 1912. A few years after that, the two cities receive library construction grants from the Carnegie Foundation; Palmetto gets its library in 1914, Bradentown in 1918.

Bradenton’s first library was opened in a dry goods store in 1898 by Julia Fuller. After the libraries were built, the first librarians were Lucien Stone in Bradentown and Belle Fuchs in Palmetto.

1908: Wyman & Green’s Real Estate Inc. opens (now known as Wyman, Green & Blalock)

1910: There are approximately 600 telephones in Bradentown. Telephone service in the city had begun in the mid-1890s, when Dr. J.B. Leffingwell opened a drugstore and post office where the Courtyard retirement residence is today. His home was on Point Pleasant, and it was too far from the drugstore to “whoop or holler,” so Leffingwell decided to put up a telephone line.

Two phones were purchased from the Standard Electric Company, and Alec Richardson and Jack Leffingwell Jr. installed the equipment. The wire - Army surplus field telegraph wire - was strung on pine trees, using the necks of beer bottles for insulators.