By Paul Leighton
Staff writer
June 19, 2009 09:22 am BEVERLY — Claire Lynch has been a Beverly National Bank customer for 20 years. She's been a North Shore Music Theatre subscriber for 30 years. Considering the fact that the bank has been around for two centuries and the theater for a half-century, she assumed those relationships would last forever. But on back-to-back days this week, Lynch and other Beverly residents absorbed the news that the theater is closing due to financial problems and the bank is being bought out by Danversbank. The announcements delivered a one-two punch that left some residents reeling over the loss of two of the city's leading business and cultural institutions. "It's very sad," Lynch said before heading into the Beverly National Bank branch in North Beverly yesterday afternoon. "It's the change in times, and when you're older, (you're) not as accepting as when you're younger." In practical terms, residents said they understood the reasons for the institutions' demise. The theater is buried under $10 million in debt during tough economic times, and the acquisition of a smaller bank by a larger bank is hardly an aberration. But the events, in particular the end of Beverly National Bank, struck a deeper emotional chord for some. The bank was founded in 1802 with money from the city's most influential first citizens, people with names like Cabot, Rantoul, Thorndike and Lovett, all of whom have prominent city streets named in their honor. City Council President Tim Flaherty said the news of the merger gave him an "uneasy feeling in my stomach." "We'll survive, but it's a little piece of a loss of a sense of community," Flaherty said. "Beverly National Bank has been a pillar of the community for so long. Not that Danversbank isn't going to contribute to the community, because they have a history of doing that, but what's next? Are they going to be taken over by a bigger bank themselves?" Some residents said they had a hard time envisioning the name Danversbank replacing Beverly National Bank on the bank's headquarters in the heart of downtown Beverly. "I was talking to a friend of mine from Florida about it, and she said, 'You mean it's not even going to be Beverly/Danvers or Danvers/Beverly? Just Danvers?'" Mary Gallant said. Gallant and her husband, Larry, have been Beverly National Bank customers for 46 years. Larry Gallant said he was "disappointed, but not surprised" by the merger. "The bank has grown," he said. "It kind of lost the little personal touch they had with the community." Longtime bank customer Gerald Foley said he doesn't like the idea of a Danvers bank taking over an institution with such deep roots in the community. "It takes away from the name of the city and the bank that's been around for 200 years," he said. Claire Lynch said she switched to Beverly National Bank 20 years ago when the old Beverly Savings Bank was bought out by the Warren Five Cents Savings Bank. She said she'll stay with Danversbank for the convenience, but she'll miss having the Beverly name on her account. "I just feel a little hometown pride," she said. Former bank employee Ed Bushey said he was sad to see the bank go, and he worries about the potential loss of jobs for the current workers. Bushey started working at Beverly National in 1950, picking up mail. By the time he retired 40 years later, he was a senior vice president. Bushey said the bank always had a family atmosphere and a deep commitment to the community. "To me," he said, "it was Beverly." Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or pleighton@salemnews.com.
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