The building located at 509 Main Street, originally stood six stories tall. In 1905, the building housed the Cumberland Telephone and Telegraph Company, employed about twenty people and handled both telephone calls and commercial telegrams. The machine which handled telephone calls was a multiple switchboard containing a double-metallic wire system. The women who operated the switchboard were known as “hello girls”. In 1919, the building to the left (current Rosenzweig Arts Center location) caught fire and much of the top floors of the bank building were destroyed. It was rebuilt, but only up to four stories. The First Columbus Bank building was retrofitted in the 1960’s to have the first drive-through teller in Columbus, therefore the gated drive through.
