The South Strafford Branch is located in the rear corner of Coburn’s General Store, a Vermont country store that dates back to the late 1800s.

In the fall of 1977, Dubois Thompson, Jr., who managed the Norwich office of First Inter-State Bank approached Sue and Melvin Coburn about the possibility of opening up a satellite bank office in their market. The Coburns welcomed the idea, and on August 26, 1978, the one room, one window South Strafford branch of First Inter-State bank celebrated its grand opening.

First Inter-State Bank changed its name to First Twin-state Bank in May 1983, and then to Green Mountain Bank in 1991. Mascoma Savings Bank acquired several branches of Green Mountain Bank in January of 1996.

For the first 30 years or so of operation, despite changes in bank names and ownership, the physical space and services provided by the bank-in-a-store remained largely the same. That changed in May 2010, when Mascoma Savings Bank divided the space into two distinct rooms: one containing the teller area that is now facing out into the store, and the second space that holds an office where customers can open accounts or meet with bank employees.

In keeping with the feel of the old country store, the Bank took extra steps to build old fashioned teller windows with bars, using the work of a local artisan. The design of the bars is the same as the Bank’s offices in Chelsea and Bethel, Vermont.