The Vallandingham family of First State Bank continues to build on decades of success while remaining true to the bank’s small-town roots.
By James E. Casto
HQ 90 | SUMMER 2015
As a boy, Sam Vallandingham left Barboursville Elementary each day after school and headed for First State Bank, where he was kept busy sweeping floors, shredding paper documents and doing other odd jobs. “They put me to work and things just sort of grew from there,” he says. Today, he’s the president of First State – the fourth member of his family to hold that post.
For four generations, members of the Vallandingham family have guided the fortunes of First State Bank, fostering its growth from a sleepy little country bank to an important player in the regional economy. Banking, it seems, is a family affair for the Vallandinghams.
The bank traces its origin to 1905, when P.A. Vallandingham, fed up with the poor price he was getting for the burley tobacco he raised, decided to try his hand at something new. Moving from Kentucky to Barboursville, he helped organize the First State Bank and later served as its president for more than three decades, from 1932 to 1966. His son, Granville Vallandingham, then ran the bank until he retired in 1975. That’s when Granville’s son, Phil, became president and chairman of the board.
Phil Vallandingham recalls that when he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University in 1964, he thought he “wanted to do something with import-export. I met with my father and my grandfather and decided there was an opportunity here for me.”
Under Phil, First State grew from a small community bank with assets of $2 million to a regional operation with assets of more than $300 million.
Along the way, the bank has steadily expanded. In 1970, it built its current building on Central Avenue in downtown Barboursville. In 1981, it opened a drive-thru branch on U.S. 60, just around the corner from its main building. In 1999, it opened a full-service branch in the former Big Bear Supermarket at 29th Street in Huntington.
“By opening the Big Bear location,” Phil says, “we were able to better serve our many Huntington and Ohio customers by saving them from having to drive clear out to Barboursville to bank with us.”
After the Big Bear store closed, the bank moved the branch to the Kroger store at 26th Street in Huntington.
In 2009, First State opened a brand-new, full-service banking center at Teays Valley in Putnam County.
In 2012, it opened a branch bank in an historic 12-story building at Fourth Avenue and 10th Street in downtown Huntington. Built in 1914, the building is best known as the long-time home of the former First Huntington National Bank.
Phil says First State long had been interested in opening a location in downtown Huntington but was unable to do so until it found the right spot.
First State has its customer service center on the first floor of the building and offices on the second floor. It also operates a drive-thru location in the 900 block of Fifth Avenue. The bank closed its branch at Kroger and transferred its operations to the downtown building.
“We had never been able to work out a satisfactory drive-thru at the Kroger store, so the downtown drive-thru was the first thing that caught our attention,” Phil says. “But the more we looked at it the more we realized that we were growing and the building offered us the space we needed.” Two dozen of First State’s approximately 60 employees now work on the building’s second floor, he says.
Phil is quick to give the bank’s employees much of the credit for its spectacular growth over the years.
“We’ve been fortunate for many years to have some really good employees who’ve been willing to go the extra mile for us – and for the community. I never fail to be impressed by the number of extra-curricular activities our employees are involved in and the important roles they’re playing in the community.”
In 2013, Phil stepped down as the bank’s president, turning the post over to Sam, his oldest son, while remaining as chairman.
Sam is a graduate of Florida State University, where he graduated with degrees in finance, and Louisiana State University, where he earned a master’s in banking.
After college, he says, he looked at the different options open to him and decided First State was where he wanted to be, “giving back to those who had given to me.”
Sam’s younger brother, Andrew, and his sister, Stephanie Mayberry, also are part of First State’s leadership team. Andrew is the bank’s senior vice president over assets and liabilities, and Stephanie is corporate secretary for the bank’s holding company, First Bancshares.
“Stephanie’s degree from Florida State is in interior design and she has her own company, Hickory Hill Designs,” Phil says. “So, she did the redesign of our downtown branch, doing a wonderful job of turning the sterile 1914 bank décor into something that’s warmer and more inviting to our customers.”
“Our three kids are all extremely involved in the bank, and I’m really proud of them,” Phil says. Sam says First State is pleased to be part of a “new excitement” in downtown Huntington, as sparked by Pullman Square and the renovation of a number of retail buildings.
“We see being downtown as an opportunity to better serve our existing clients and grow our market base,” Sam says.
The bank, he says, long has been committed to economic development. “First State has been a leader in lending assistance in the region. Four out of the last seven years, we’ve been recognized as the Small Business Administration’s ‘Small Business Lender of the Year’ in West Virginia.” He also notes that for more than 10 years the bank has had an outstanding rating under the federal Community Reinvestment Act, which encourages banks to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low and moderate-income neighborhoods.
Despite its growth, Phil says, First State strives to remain true to its small-town roots. “When you call us, it won’t be a machine answering the phone, it will be a person,” he says. “It’s more expensive to do it that way, and of course we have an electronic backup, but we think the personal touch is important. When somebody answers your call, their job is to get you to someone who can help you, not connect you to another machine.”
