Bank -- Main Street -- Limerick, Maine 10c.

Bank -- Main Street -- Limerick, Maine 10c.

"Bank -- Main Street -- Limerick, Maine 10c." Image shows a row of buildings from various time periods on the broad dirt Main Street, some of them homes converted to commercial uses on the ground floor. The view includes a glimpse of one of the older homes at the end of the street, adjacent to the Academy. The cement sidewalks appear to be new. The subject of the photo is the Limerick National Bank building, built around 1890-1900. The structure's design is a vernacular interpretation of the Colonial Revival Style -- or basically a large, simple house with Colonial features, such as the fancy pediment above the entrance, the balustrade, and the round window with trim imitating stone work, added on. The bank, according to Thomas LePage, "is known for its idea for creating a savings department and being the first bank to create such a department...(its) first president, Jeremiah M. Mason, conceived of the idea that it would be possible, and of mutual interest, to the bank and its patrons, if the bank paid patrons a fixed percent of money each quarter on the balance of each account that the patron had held with the bank."