Central Carolina Bank and Trust

Central Carolina Bank and Trust (CCB) was a bank headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. It began in 1961 with the merger of Durham Bank & Trust and University National Bank of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. CCB merged with SunTrust Banks of Atlanta, Georgia in 2005. Its headquarters was the historic 17-story Hill Building.

In 1899, attorney John Sprunt Hill married Annie Louise Watts, daughter of George Washington Watts, co-founder of the American Tobacco Company. Watts and Hill started Durham Loan & Trust Company and Home Savings Bank. Hill served as president and chairman of both banks. In 1931, Durham Loan & Trust became Durham Bank & Trust. Home Savings Bank and Durham Bank & Trust merged in 1950. In 1961, Durham Bank & Trust became Central Carolina Bank and Trust Company.

In 1964, architect Frank DePasquale wanted to put a tobacco leaf on the new CCB sign to go atop the Hill Building. Bank chairman George Watts Hill, the founder's son, did not like the idea because he felt the focus should be on the bank's services, not the city's tobacco heritage. The four-sided sign instead had just "Roman-style letters, classic and unadorned". Harlan Laws Corp. "fabricated the letters in sections from steel and had them coated with white porcelain to protect against rust. The louvered aluminum screen on which they were mounted was anodized against corrosion. Fasteners were of brass or stainless steel for the same reason." The parts for the sign went up after regular business hours in elevators that only reached the 14th floor, and workers used ropes and pulleys to lift them the rest of the way, 270 feet above the street. Workers used a ladder or were lowered by ropes using a soft drink box as a seat. Inside the 12-foot letters went white neon lighting.

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