TILIW Bank Vault to Burial Vault – Angela Stephens – Bob Brail – Bank of Augusta – the Town Painter emeritus
Gentle readers, recently it was my pleasure to collaborate with Angela Stephens and Bob Brail on a video to unearth the Bank of Augusta from its resting place within the walls of the Pitman-Thilking Funeral Home in Augusta.
Angela (president of Friends of Historic Augusta) is very creative with video recording, and Bob (editor of the Boone-Duden Historical Society) is an ace at researching and writing enlightening stories about our local history. And me, I’m the Town Painter/Handyman emeritus of Augusta; hence I know more about the buried secrets of our town than I can politely reveal. But I’m also an entertainer, and when I approached Angela and Bob, seeking their help on a light-hearted historic video, they didn’t hesitate. Don’t you just love enthusiastic people?
On Thursday, July 18, 2024, at 8:30am, Jan Mallinckrodt unlocked the funeral home for us. I had already secured permission from Eric Pitman for our little invasive field trip. Here’s the result:
My curious friends, back in 2022, I wrote a little about the bank/funeral home. If you want to read the whole story, here’s an excerpt:
Tell It Like It Was - Pitman-Thilking Part 2
Adapted from the original email-letters from Paul Ovaitt - Original date May 8, 2022
Dearly beloved, I often wonder what the ethical limits are to my revealing what I know. In my capacity as a town handyman/painter I’ve seen so much of this town, and I know more than I’d ever admit. I mean, when a person frequents attics, cellars, crawlspaces, and outbuildings, you learn things even the homeowner doesn’t know. But the bank… this is town history were talking about, so I’m gonna sing. There is, indeed, a concrete vault within the funeral home. It has an arched ceiling, safety deposit boxes, a strong steel door, an alarm system, and all manner of old financial and funereal accoutrement. But it’s well hidden and you’ll probably never see it, so I’ll share a few photos in the attachments. And if you enlarge the picture of the rear of the funeral building, you can just make out the words, Bank of Augusta. Enough said.
Deposit boxes.
Rear view of Pitman-Thilking funeral home. Note the faint lettering,
Bank Of Augusta.
Stay curious,
paulO
The Friends of Historic Augusta's S.A.G.E project (Stories of Augusta's German Evolution) is sponsoring this program (TILIW stories) in partnership with the Missouri Humanities and with support from the Missouri Humanities Trust Fund. If you wish to read more stories, or want to make a donation to Friends of Historic Augusta and Tell It Like It Was, please use this link: https://www.augustamomuseum.com/tell-it-like-it-was-stories
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