The Union Bank needed four addresses and 45 years to settle in Boorowa, and when it finally did, it built something that still turns heads on Pudman Street. The Union Bank of Australia opened its Boorowa branch on 26 May 1885 in a cottage in Marsden Street, next to the Court House Hotel, with James Crombie as manager. It was the third bank in town. The bank soon bought a block of land in Market Street, but held off building while it waited to see whether the railway would come to Boorowa. Instead, in December 1886, it leased a new two-storey corner building that is now part of the Court House Hotel, stop six on the Shamrock Trail. On 18 October 1898, the bank moved again, buying the bank building in Brial Street for £1400. That building already had a story of its own. It was built in 1879 for the Oriental Bank, with a bricklayer on the job writing a poem about its progress for the Burrowa News, and it opened that October to "cups of sparkling wine". After the Oriental Bank collapsed, the Commercial Bank bought it in 1885, before the Union Bank took over. It stands today as a private residence. In 1926 the Union Bank bought allotment three, section six, in Pudman Street for £600, and the new branch, built for £6000, opened on 20 January 1930. Its central arch was the distinguishing feature of Union Bank branches, and it remains the building's signature today. In October 1951, the Union Bank merged with the Bank of Australasia to form the ANZ Bank, and the Pudman Street branch carried on under the new name. The branch closed in 1996, 111 years after the Union Bank first opened its doors in Boorowa. Known these days as Henwood House, the former bank spent a stint welcoming visitors as short-stay accommodation before becoming a private home. Like the old Brial Street bank, it is now lived in, so trail walkers are asked to enjoy the arch from the footpath.
