This year’s Christmas Open House at the Old New Tripoli Bank, New Tripoli, was a daytime event rather than in the evening as in previous years.

Better attendance was credited to the great weather and a middle school scavenger hunt.

Outside on the lawn was an old one-horse sleigh and in it Santa Claus waited for the children to visit.

The sleigh is on loan from Roseanne Bagenstose and is stored at the old barn at Ontelaunee Park.

Also, Craig Weaver of Germansville brought his garden-scale train set and a village including McDonald’s.

Inside, Willard Snyder was explaining that the steel on the old bank vault door could not be touched without immediately being cleaned as it was not stainless steel.

A fingerprint was enough to start rust forming. The door weighs 9 tons but moves easily once in motion.

On display is one of the first jackets for Northwestern Lehigh High School. Before the school was built, students rode the Berksey train to Slatington for high school or were allowed to attend a more convenient school in the area.

Northwestern Lehigh Middle School held a program for social studies students to earn extra credit. They received a sheet of questions when entering the bank for a scavenger hunt and had to find the answers during their tour.

Some of the questions were: How much did it cost to build the bank in 1910? Answer $7,000; What was the junior group that danced with Earl and Ferne Keller of the Melody Rangers? Answer Little Jiggers; What skill did a cashier need to become an employee at the bank? Answer How to fire a handgun. There were 15 questions.

When the bank was originally planned, it was to be called Farmers National Bank but the name was changed to New Tripoli Bank.

A display of money included an uncirculated $20 bill from 1909 and script (small paper money) used when there were insufficient coins.

When the currency system was based on gold and silver, the bank could ask the U.S. Treasury to create currency with the bank’s name.

The display features money from many of the local banks.

Snyder recalled being sent to learn to shoot at the beginning of his tenure as he became the bank’s longest employed person.

No attempt was ever made to rob the bank, though the new one has been robbed.

In addition to the possibility of robbery, large amounts of money were often brought to the bank after an auction.

The gun was kept under the corner teller’s window.

“It’s good to be keeping this stuff alive,” said Justin Arifaj, a social studies teacher at Northwestern Middle School and Santa Claus for the day.