First National Bank of Denver

The First National Bank of Denver, founded in 1865, was the first national bank in the Intermountain West, and was once one of the United States’s largest financial institutions.

Attracting attention during the 1858-62 Pike’s Peak gold rush, by 1865 Denver was a small town of about 5,000 in the Colorado Territory. Jerome B. Chaffee, who settled in Denver in 1860, sought to grow Colorado’s economic potential and established the First National Bank of Denver in 1865, the first of its kind in the Intermountain region. Chaffee, considered a leading organizer of the Colorado Territory, used his mining interests to establish First National as one of the American West’s premier financial houses.

Originally located on Denver’s first financial district, Fifteenth Street, First National’s initial directors included Walter S. Cheeseman, owner of the Denver City Water Company, and H. A. W. Tabor, one of Colorado’s chief mining barons. David H. Moffat, financier turned railroad magnate, and elected as the bank’s cashier in 1866, became its foremost financial mind, embarking on dozens of speculative prospects to expand First National's portfolio. This strategy paid off. First National held $1.25 million in assets by 1872.

By the mid-1870s, Moffat operated multiple rail lines, notably the Denver Pacific Railway, linking it to the Transcontinental Railway in Cheyenne. This achievement led Denver to become the economic center of the Rocky Mountains, causing its population to explode by 675% from 1870-80. Moffat, and Tabor also owned dozens of mining claims, further enriching First National’s assets, and bolstered by Colorado’s newfound population growth.

By 1880, First National’s assets doubled to $2.4 million. Moffat, taking over from Chaffee in 1880, directly tied his financial interests to the bank’s development and served as First National’s president until he died in 1911. Its location moved twice under Moffat’s tenure, first to the Tabor Building, off Sixteenth and Larimer Streets, (not to be confused with the newer Tabor Center) and later to the Equitable Building. By 1910, First National became one of the United States’s largest banks, and with $21.4 million in assets decided to construct a new building at Seventeenth and Stout Streets, across from their previous headquarters at the Equitable Building.

Designed by Harry Edbrooke and completed in 1911, the new building became one of Denver’s first skyscrapers, reaching thirteen stories high and costing $900,000. First National, occupying the first floor and basement, with the other twelve stories rentable, made Seventeenth Street Denver’s new economic center, nicknamed the “Wall Street of the West” for its concentration of financial establishments. By 1915, H. J. Alexander, another Colorado banker, served as First National's president until 1928. The bank’s board of directors represented multiple industries, including the Midwest Refining Company, Pagosa Lumber Company, and the Colorado Development Foundation. It survived the Great Depression with little difficulty.

John Evans, H. J. Alexander’s successor, continued First National’s financial dominance, holding $186.3 million in assets by 1950. In 1958, Evans, who owned the International Trust Company, merged both institutions, ending First National’s independence. International Trust moved to a new property, and the American National Bank occupied First National’s old headquarters until 1981, serving as First Interstate Bank until 1984. The First National Bank Building, occupied since 2008 by Magnolia Hotels, continues serving as Seventeenth Street’s focal point.

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