Washington Trust Celebrates 25 Years on Franklin Street

July 3, 2007 (Westerly, RI). . . The Washington Trust Company celebrated 25 years on Franklin Street, on Saturday, June 23. In attendance were retired and former employees of the branch, along with original and present customers of the Franklin Street branch. As one of the branch office’s original customers, Phylis M. Reynolds, of Westerly, received a gift basket presented by original branch manager, Lou Luzzi and current branch manager, Sharon Morgan.

The branch opened in June 1982, and during the opening ceremony items were placed into a cornerstone. Some of the cornerstone contents are:

• Westerly-Pawcatuck telephone book
• 10 postcards with color photos of downtown Westerly and the beach area
• Annual Reports of the Bank from 1975 through 1981
• Barron’s Financial Weekly dated June 21, 1982
• 1979 John W. Weeden Book of Street Maps of Rhode Island
• Two copies of “Westerly’s Oldest Witness” (soft cover & hard cover)
• One copy of “One Hundred Years of Banking in Westerly”
• Six replicas of the Doolittle Three Dollar Note engraved originally in 1800 by Amos Doolittle
• Printers slug, which was used at the bottom of our advertisements showing Washington Trust logo and the downtown building
• Ceramic lapel button of Washington Trust logo in clear plastic
• Souvenir of 1970 renovation of the downtown building, which is a 1970 $.25 coin embedded in plastic
• A copy of the article in “Bankers Magazine” dated August 1911.
• Chon Day’s book, which was used for the Bank’s 175th anniversary in 1975
• American Banker newspaper dated June 18, 1982
• Printed regulations of THE ONE ACCOUNT
• Card agreement between the Bank and charge card holders
• Copies of those pages containing information about this Trust Company as they were shown in the catalog of the Smithsonian Institution’s display at the National Portrait Gallery of “George Washington - An American Icon”
• Copies of pages containing information about The Washington Trust Company as contained in the catalog of the Rhode Island Historical Society’ covering their showing of “Buildings On Paper” with the floor plan of the Bank’s original Greek Temple building constructed in 1836
• The Bank’s quarterly report and quarterly figures as of the close of business May 31, 1982
• Three Trust Department folders and a Trust Department booklet on inheritance taxes
• One Chamber of Commerce booklet
• Copy of The Westerly Sun for June 20, 1982, which bears on page 13 a picture of the Franklin Street office taken within the last few days
• List of subcontractors
• Copy and an original of the speech given by Robert B. Perry at the cornerstone-laying ceremony
• Pages from the guest book, which had been signed by people who had visited the building during various functions held during the week ended June 20, 1982
• Polaroid pictures, taken by Lou Luzzi at the cornerstone-laying ceremony
• Robert B. Perry’s bow tie, which he was well-known for wearing

The Washington Trust Company is a subsidiary of Washington Trust Bancorp, Inc., a $2.4 billion corporation headquartered in Westerly, Rhode Island. Founded in 1800, Washington Trust is the oldest community bank in the nation and is the largest independent bank headquartered in Rhode Island. A state-chartered bank, Washington Trust offers a full range of financial services, including personal banking, business banking, and wealth management and trust services, through its offices located in Rhode Island, southeastern Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Corporation’s common stock trades on The NASDAQ Stock Market under the symbol WASH. Web site address: www.washtrust.com.