History
The Wallkill Valley Federal Savings & Loan Association was organized back in July of 1913.
The stated goals of the Association at that time were to promote thrift and homeownership within the local community. It sought to meet these goals by providing a safe place for local savings deposits and by prudently lending these deposits back into the community in the form of home mortgages. Although many years have gone by since the Wallkill Valley Federal Savings & Loan Association was first chartered, and the financial services landscape has changed dramatically, we still work hard to meet these traditional goals.
For 22 years, the Savings and Loan activities were conducted under a State Charter until 1935 when, the Directors took the necessary steps to Federalize the Association. Since 1935, Wallkill Valley Federal Savings & Loan has operated under charter of the United States Government. The continued growth of the institution during the 1940’s, particularly following the end of World War II, made it apparent that the association would need its own office building. So on July 29, 1950, this new office building was opened to the public with a staff of two full time employees. Total Association Assets at that time stood at just over $3 million.
During the 1970’s, under the direction of the reigning Association President, Mr. Howard Terwilliger, plans to renovate existing office space were brought to fruition. The renovated office structure was dedicated in April of 1972. The additional space made it possible to expand our services beyond a transfer savings account operation to an on-line computerized system. This enabled the Association to begin to offer daily interest on accounts, various types of CD’s as well as NOW checking accounts. Mr. Terwilliger retired in 1984 and went on to serve as Chairman of the Board until his retirement in 2007. John R. Edler was elected Association president in 1984 and continued in that position until his retirement in December of 2010. Michael J. Horodyski, our current President and CEO assumed the role in 2011.
Under the guidance of Michael J. Horodyski, the first full service branch outside of the Wallkill community was opened in Milton, NY on February 28, 2011. This was the Association’s first attempt to move outside of Wallkill and bring our unique way of delivering financial services to our surrounding communities. In 2012, the Association marked another milestone with the acquisition of Highland Falls Federal Savings and Loan. Much like us, Highland Falls Federal was engrained in the local community and we are excited to continue and grow our brand with our first branch in Orange County, NY.
2013 marked Wallkill Valley Federal’s 100th year helping our neighbors with their financial needs. We are excited to have maintained and grown our presence over the last 100 years and look forward to expanding and continuing prudent stewardship for the next 100 years. To that end, we ended 2014 by opening our fourth branch location. The second branch in Orange County, our Maybrook, NY location opened on December 1st, 2014.
In December of 2016, Wallkill Valley Federal Savings & Loan Association and Hometown Bank of the Hudson Valley signed a definitive merger agreement. The transaction was officially closed on August 11, 2017. As a result, Wallkill Valley Federal has four additional branches in Montgomery, Otisville, Monroe and Walden. The additional branch network in Orange County helped Wallkill Valley Federal’s presence and made it much more convenient for neighbors to experience their unique style of banking.
In June of 2022, the Association acquired the Newburgh branch of Empire State Bank. This allowed us to break into a new market area and expand our customer base in Orange County. The Newburgh branch is our 7th branch in Orange County and 9th full-service banking office in New York.
