ADRIAN — The west end of Adrian has a new look and area residents have a new resource for banking.

American 1 Credit Union, a Jackson-based credit union, is expanding its presence in Lenawee County with the opening of a new Adrian branch at 1586 W. Maumee St. 

The property is the former home of the Eclipse nightclub, and before that, the LA Cafe.

American 1 built a completely new building on the lot. The new  branch is approximately 2,600 square feet. It currently has seven employees and is a full-service branch with drive-through lanes and a drive-up ATM.

American 1 was founded in 1950, but its roots go back to the end of World War II. In 1945, members of the Jackson-area manufacturing community started Jackson Co-Op Services, known today as the Community 1 Cooperative. The reason for starting the co-op was that even though the country was experiencing a postwar economic boom, the average Jackson worker didn’t have access to low-cost credit and regular savings programs, and the organization was an attempt to address that shortcoming.

In 1950 the co-op leaders agreed that starting a local credit union would help meet the financial needs of everyday working people in the community, so they founded what was then called the Jackson Co-Op Federal Credit Union. Its first location was inside the union hall of what was then the United Rubber Workers Local 185. A year later, the credit union purchased a small house on Chapin Street in Jackson to serve as its office, and then a vacant church on Pearl Street. Ultimately it bought the former McCourtie dealership at 718 E. Michigan Ave. in Jackson, which is still its headquarters.

By 1964, the credit union had more than 5,000 members and soon established branches in Battle Creek, Hillsdale, and other areas surrounding Jackson County.

In 1987, the organization changed its name to American 1 Federal Credit Union. In October 2011, it changed from a federally chartered credit union to a state-chartered credit union and dropped “Federal” from its name.

The credit union started expanding into Lenawee County in 2017. It currently has about 66,000 members, about 5,800 of whom are in Lenawee County. 

The new Adrian branch opened in late March and a ribbon cutting was held on April 22. 

The credit union previously operated a branch inside Country Market on West Maumee Street.

More information is available at american1cu.org or on the credit union’s Facebook page, facebook.com/american1creditunion.