Erika and Travis Lavallee dreamed of building their own home. After they got engaged in 2018, they bought their land — 30 acres in Westford — but they struggled to find a mortgage lender to underwrite the construction. Travis, a licensed contractor, planned to oversee the project himself. “There aren’t a lot of banks that will allow you to do that,” Erika explained.

Luckily for them, friends steered the couple to a local institution they hadn’t considered: Morrisville-based Union Bank, which traces its roots in Vermont back to 1891.

Union Bank approved their loan. In 2019, the Lavallees got married and started construction on their temporary living quarters — a large three-car garage with an apartment above it that they called their “barndominium.” The couple moved in with their first baby while also getting to work on their three-bedroom dream home nearby.

The COVID-19 pandemic slowed them down, but they were able to complete construction this summer, shortly after the birth of their second child. In August, the family of four moved in.

Throughout the entire process, the Lavallees worked with the same mortgage lender, Brenda Farrell of Union Bank’s Williston branch. She helped them get a construction loan for the house and an additional loan for the barndominium. Working with Farrell made what could’ve been a nerve-racking process a lot less stressful.

“She made it really easy,” Erika said. “She knows us pretty well. If we need a check, she has it ready that day and knows what to do to push things along.”

Farrell became a friendly face. “If we see her around, we’ll stop and say hi and chat. It’s nice to have that community feeling with our bank.”

Personal Service, Local Values

When Union Bank opened its Jericho branch five years ago, branch manager Stacie Griffiths was there to unlock the doors. Griffiths has been with Union Bank for six years of her 26-year banking career, and she feels that her years with her current employer have been some of the most rewarding.

“What attracted me to accept the position [is that] we focus on the community and giving back, and we reinvest in all of our communities and our customers,” Griffiths said.

Founded in Morrisville in 1891 as the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company, the bank shortened its name to Union Bank in 1974. Today it runs 19 banking offices and three loan centers in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Its Vermont branches are in Jericho, Williston, Fairfax, Berlin, St. Albans, Hardwick, Jeffersonville, Johnson, Lyndonville, St. Johnsbury, Stowe and Shelburne, with loan centers in Williston and St. Johnsbury. Its headquarters remains on Main Street in Morrisville. It also has a branch in Northgate Plaza in Morrisville. 

“We’re a local, Vermont-based bank, so all of our decisions are [made] within the branch and locally. That is huge to a lot of customers because they can have a face-to-face relationship with us,” Griffiths said. “You get personal service.”

In fact, many of Griffiths’ customers from her previous institution followed her to Union Bank to get that kind of service — she said this touches her heart, to be able to treat them as she would want to be treated as a customer.

Griffiths also sees her staff building the same kinds of relationships with their customers. At the Jericho branch, customers will come in and ask for employees by name because they’re familiar with everyone who works there. “That’s just the culture at Union Bank,” she said.

Lending a Helping Hand

Community is important to Union Bank, too. The proof is in its long-standing partnerships with community organizations such as the Northeast Kingdom Cancer Action Network, dedicated to fighting cancer in the Northeast Kingdom, and in its relationships with local real estate agents. In the past year, the bank supported 200 different nonprofits.

Lots of Union Bank employees show up whenever NEKCAN has an event, board president Mike Barrett said. NEKCAN’s goal is to give people with a cancer diagnosis one less thing to worry about. That can mean paying for caregivers, medical equipment or treatment itself.

As the first organization to donate to the nonprofit, Union Bank has been a consistent supporter of the group’s work to enhance the quality of life for individuals and families impacted by cancer. Union Bank helps put on fundraisers, including an annual car show and a rail trail 5K. There’s also an '80s dance party that Barrett says has a “cult following.”

In addition to showing support at events, Union Bank is a Courage Sponsor — a donation of $5,000 that funds people fighting cancer in Caledonia, Orleans or Essex county. “One hundred percent of that money goes toward helping those individuals,” Barrett said.

Barrett was connected with Union Bank through its work with Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. After meeting many of the bank’s volunteers at that event, he reached out to the bank when NEKCAN was formed, and they began working together.

Melyssa Whitcomb, vice president and residential and consumer loan officer at the Union Bank Lyndonville branch, serves as a NEKCAN board member. Whitcomb lost her twin sister, Melynda Miller, to cancer in January 2024; Melynda also worked at Union Bank. In fact, she was the loan officer for Mike Barrett’s home.

“After she passed, Melyssa has been our officer going forward,” Barrett said. “They’re amazing. They both have really helped us make our vision for our house a reality.”

Barrett said that when choosing Union Bank, it was especially important to him to know how active its staff was in the community. Knowing that it was a local organization with employees that made a philanthropic effort to give back made it an “easy decision” for Barrett.

“It creates a sense of community when you have a local business like Union Bank that really gets involved,” Barrett said.

Home Sweet Home

After 45 years as a real estate agent, Mary Scott of Tim Scott Real Estate in St. Johnsbury has a knack for helping first-time homebuyers. When a young couple she was working with were denied a loan by the big mortgage company that they were using, Scott was confident there was a solution: Union Bank.

“The husband worked at a private school, and they’d shut down for a while during COVID, so he didn’t get a paycheck. They missed one rent payment, and it was keeping larger [banks] from accepting them,” she explained.

Scott suggested that the couple go local and reach out to Union Bank. “They were accepted [for the loan] because the bank looked at them as individuals,” Scott said. She added that she always advises people to work locally because the process will “always be smoother.”

“I hear someone is going to work with a big mortgage company, and I shudder. That’s always going to be more difficult,” she said.

The real estate world is not only complicated, but it’s also always changing. Sometimes people need hand-holding, she said. “I want to be there every step of the way.” Working with Union Bank for 30 years as part of her job, Scott has built face-to-face relationships with employees, versus when she works with a larger company and gets switched around from person to person.

Another couple she was working with was trying to purchase a listing but couldn’t get in touch with the larger, nonlocal bank that they were working with. “[The bank] wouldn’t answer calls, and it was getting down to the wire,” Scott said.

When that happened, she suggested that the couple call Union Bank, and they worked it out right away. Within two days, they had a solution to their problem, and they were able to do the loan through Union Bank. “Other institutions are just too big, and things get lost,” she added.

The sale of homes relies on contractual obligations that are contingent on the buyer obtaining certain financing by a certain date. If your lender isn’t diligent, you could miss those deadlines. In a competitive buyers' market with minimal inventory, the lenders at Union Bank are even more important — crucial, even.

As Scott put it, “The thing about Union Bank is, they understand the uniqueness of Vermont.”

This article was commissioned and paid for by Union Bank.