He was born in Fort Plain New York where the bank is located!   

Bud Fowler was unquestionably the first African American ballplayer to ever play professional baseball in the United States and predated baseball great Jackie Robinson by several decades.  Although, his Baseball Legacy is undeniable and incredibly significant, he has been denied entrance in the Hall of Fame, despite being recognized by the Hall of Fame in naming a street called “Bud Fowler Way” in Cooperstown in 2013.  The time has come, and it is the purpose of this newly restored Bank Venue situated in his birthplace town, that this mans achievements be recognized and exalted in the name of History and in the Name of baseball, and it is the intention of NYSAB'S board of directors to honor this mans great baseball achievements on the field, as a baseball organizer and team executive, and off the field as man who lived baseball since he was 14, by setting a place in the back for a memorial plaque and installing permanently other memorabilia, to honor and justly revere this man, and to create a “Wall Of Fame” to document his achievements and indeed to compel t he Hall of Fame to include this iconic Character of Baseball who did everything in his power to empower the game, and indeed induct him and enshrine him ion the hall where he deserves to be.  In the interim, The Board Of Directors of NYSAB will promote this man’s greatness to the game, educate the public at large to who he was and what he represents to the game, and forever enshrine his memory to encapsulate what he did historically for the game of baseball and how he actually paved the way for baseball to eliminate the race barrier it created.