Mallie Griffin and others started a bank called the Farmers and Merchants Bank in the building at 1 N. Main Street.

The bank did fine for a few years; however, when the Great Depression came in 1929, the bank was about to go under. They decided to sell Farmers and Merchants Bank to the Bank of Wendell. Farmers and Merchants Bank lost their name in the merger.

The building was later home to Wendell Savings & Loan. The upper floors were occupied by doctors and a prosperous export tobacco company, E.R. Sykes &. Co. By being in the heart of downtown and one of the first buildings in Wendell, this building had been a center of commerce for the town.

Older people in town still refer to this building as the Savings & Loan building.