Last November, McGregor-based TFNB Your Bank for Life opened its fifth location at 715 Elm Ave. in East Waco. This is the first bank in East Waco in more than 100 years. The CenTex African American Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and Greater Waco Chamber all helped TFNB commemorate the historic return of banking services to the east side of the river.

David Littlewood, TFNB president and CEO, sees this new location as an opportunity to invest further into the Waco community. “It’s our desire to be a part of, and connect with, East Waco in East Waco—not from across town,” he says. “We will have a full-service staff on-site who will be there to meet their needs. A community is as good as the sum of its parts. East Waco has some of the longest-established businesses and neighborhoods in all of Waco.”

TFNB Senior Vice President Dortheia Love looks forward to the opportunity to build even better relationships with the East Waco community. “We will prove to you through our actions and drive for excellence how we plan to become the East Waco ‘bank of choice’,” Love says. “TFNB Your Bank for Life will provide you with expertise, a caring listening spirit and local decision-making. We will become partners in your future successes. We welcome you to a caring and listening bank that wants to get to know you.”

According to a small research project spearheaded by Baylor University’s history department, the last known bank in East Waco was The Texas Guarantee Bank and Trust Co., which opened an Elm Ave. location in 1913, but closed it between 1915 and 1916. TFNB—started under the charter First National Bank of McGregor in 1889—had already been in business for 24 years the last time a bank served East Waco.

TFNB’s East Waco branch is the bank’s fifth location. Its other branches are in Waco and McGregor. Below are photographs from the grand opening. Click here to view additional photographs of the event.