Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995                   TAG: 9506220033
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                  LENGTH: Medium

`UPSTART' BROKERAGE MARKS A CENTURY

F.W. Scott borrowed $10,000 from his father to open an upstart investment company with partner Charles S. Stringfellow Jr. in 1893. Within two years, the Scott & Stringfellow partnership had done well enough to become the first firm in the South to purchase a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.

This week, the brokerage firm marked that 100th anniversary. The Richmond-based firm is the 15th-oldest member of the New York exchange and one of the three oldest members outside New York City, according to NYSE records.

The company has grown in the past 100 years to 480 employees in 26 offices in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia, including Roanoke, Lynchburg, Blacksburg, Bluefield, Lexington, Martinsville and Danville. But Scott & Stringfellow officials say their focus of providing sharp analysis of industries in the region remains the same.

``We still want to know more about some companies, particularly regional companies ... than our competitors,'' said firm Vice Chairman Frederic S. Bocock.

There are Southern brokerages older than Scott & Stringfellow, but none held a NYSE seat before 1895. Owning a seat gave Scott & Stringfellow the right to buy and sell securities on the exchange's floor.

F.W. Scott bought his seat for $19,500. Just six years later, in 1901, a seat cost $80,000. The last sale was April 7, 1995, for $810,000, according to the NYSE. There is a limit of 1,366 seats.

Scott and Stringfellow were in their early 30s when they opened their firm. The partners brought expertise on railroads, tobacco, farm commodities and other industries important to the South, said Chief Executive Officer William P. Schubmehl. He said their hallmark was research, compiling basic data in an era of virtually no securities laws to protect the investing public.

Scott learned the stock market ropes in New York, but was firmly rooted to the South. Bocock said it's no disadvantage for the company to be located away from Wall Street, because its focus is regional companies.

``You have to admit there are a lot of bright people in New York,'' he said. ``On the other hand, a lot of those bright people are having lunch with each other. If you want different results, you have to have different ideas.''

Ill health forced Stringfellow to retire in 1901. He died a year later. Scott remained an exchange member until his death in 1939.