The Bank of Henry, the second bank to incorporate in Abbeville, opened on September 7, 1903, in a building on the north side of the square and moved in 1907 to the newly built E.C. Porter building on the south side of the square at the corner of Kirkland and East Williams Streets. The building that housed the bank had been built after the May 20, 1906, fire as part of a three-store complex owned by Emmett Christian Porter, with neighboring spaces occupied by Stokes Brothers Dry Goods and the Abbeville Trading Company, after the fire destroyed all the buildings on both sides of the first block of Kirkland Street and the entire block was rebuilt. Soon after the three businesses took occupancy in 1907, they had to relocate for repairs following another fire. On the evening of March 30, 1908, a second fire began in the loft of either the Abbeville Trading Company or Stokes Brothers Dry Goods and spread to the bank building; its exact origin could not be determined, the exterior walls were spared, but the interiors of all three buildings had to be rebuilt, with necessary repairs made by local builder and carpenter Charles Edward Blacklidge, Jr. Afterward, the businesses returned to the E.C. Porter complex. A third fire occurred in the bank building on February 14, 1929, after business hours; dense smoke made the source hard to find, but it was eventually determined that the blaze started in the basement from live coals that had fallen through the grate above. This fire damaged only the flooring in the bank, requiring the entire floor to be removed and replaced. The bank safe fell through the floor as a result of one of the interior fires, though whether this happened in 1908 or 1929 cannot be proved with certainty, and the safe still rests on the ground under the old bank building. Emmett C. Porter was one of the bank's stockholders, and Dr. Albert Sidney Steagall, a medical doctor and prominent businessman, served as president and major shareholder. The state-chartered bank, sometimes called the Steagall Bank, had twenty-two shareholders and capital stock valued at $50,000. In 1917 it was reorganized and nationalized as Henry National Bank. The bank remained in business until 1929, when it became a casualty of the Great Depression. After a board meeting on Wednesday, March 28, 1929, the directors ordered the bank to suspend business, and it was unsuccessful in its attempt to open again despite a positive financial statement filed with the comptroller on December 31, 1928, listing total resources of nearly one-half million dollars. Speculation suggested that the failure to reopen on March 29 may have resulted from the inability of officials to collect outstanding loans. Several later attempts to reorganize and reopen failed, and in August 1929 a receiver was appointed to proceed with liquidation, concluding the dissolution of the Bank of Henry.