For the first 93 years of its existence, Lake City Bank operated from a single location. That changed in 1965, when it opened its first branch in Winona Lake. A location in Silver Lake followed the next year, then a third in 1972. The bank added a fourth branch in North Webster in 1974, then fell silent for the next several years.

That changed after Lake City Bank installed its 10th president, Douglas Grant, in 1980. His strength was facilitating growth, and he used it to build on the solid foundation he inherited from his predecessors.

Grant’s approach to branch banking was to take the bank to customers. The purpose of a branch, he said, was to “provide the community with a personal touch in financial assistance in meeting its banking needs.” As one employee put it, as other banks moved out of smaller communities, Lake City Bank invested in them.

In short order, the bank opened branches in Syracuse, Mentone, Milford and Pierceton. Some were built from the ground up; others were existing buildings that the bank remodeled. Then something remarkable happened. Although banks at that time couldn’t expand across county lines, a change in state law allowed it for certain cases that would keep troubled banks from going under. So on August 15, 1984, Lake City Bank acquired the State Exchange Bank in Roann (Wabash County), and, for the first time, the bank could do business outside Kosciusko County.

An Indiana law that took effect in 1985 paved the way for more cross-county banking. Lake City Bank soon expanded further, each time taking care to become part of its new community. The goal was not to operate like a Kosciusko County bank that had extended its reach. Instead, it sought to truly become a local bank by hiring local people to run each operation.

By 1990, Lake City Bank operated 14 locations in five counties. Most of this expansion had taken place over just a 10-year period.