Bowery Savings Bank

Last updated

The original headquarters at 130 Bowery, Manhattan Bowery Savings Bank - Entrance (51624125693).jpg
The original headquarters at 130 Bowery, Manhattan

The Bowery Savings Bank was a bank in New York City, chartered in May 1834. In 1930, it was the largest bank in the USA based on total deposits. [1] By 1980, it had over 35 branches in the New York metropolitan area. In 1992, it was sold to H. F. Ahmanson & Co. for $200 million.

Contents

The bank's first branch at 130 Bowery was replaced twice; the current building on the site, designed by Stanford White and completed in 1895, is now an upscale venue. The bank decided to move its headquarters in 1920, and a new building was constructed from 1921 to 1923 at 110 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. Both of these buildings are New York City designated landmarks.

History

The Bowery Savings Bank opened in 1834 at the site of what is now 128-130 Bowery in Manhattan. [2] From 1930 to 1976, Bowery Savings was the largest savings bank in the USA, based on total deposits. [1] [3] By 1980, it had over 35 branches located in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens, as well as Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island. When bank deregulation was enacted, the bank began to suffer losses as a result of rising savings account interest rates. By 1982, the bank was running out of cash; in 1985, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) arranged for the bank to be sold to Richard Ravitch and others. It was sold for $100 million and allowed to maintain a capital deficit of $220 million rather than pay out on the $5 billion in deposits. In 1992, it was sold to H. F. Ahmanson & Co. for $200 million. [4] [5] The name was changed by 1992 to Home Savings of America. [6] [7] In 1995, Ahmanson sold their New York operations to Greenpoint Savings Bank. [8] [9] By 2004, Greenpoint had been sold to North Fork Bank, [10] and in 2007, North Fork was sold to Capital One Bank. [11]

From 1972 to 1992, baseball Hall-of-Famer Joe DiMaggio was spokesman for the Bowery Savings Bank. [12]

Timeline

Buildings

130 Bowery

Bowery Savings Bank headquarters at 128-130 Bowery, circa 1900 Bowery, New York City, ca. 1898.jpg
Bowery Savings Bank headquarters at 128–130 Bowery, circa 1900

The bank's headquarters at 128–130 Bowery between Broome and Grand Streets was designed by Stanford White of the architecture firm of McKim, Mead & White, and built in 1893–95. [13] The L-shaped building continues from Bowery through to Elizabeth Street, and has a second entrance facade at 228 Grand Street. White's choice of a Roman classical style for the building, a first, set a trend for bank buildings, first in New York, and then across the United States. The exterior features Corinthian columns and sculpted pediments by Frederic MacMonnies, while the interior gives the impression of a Roman temple, and is said to be one of the great spaces in New York. [13] [14] It features the extensive use of marble, in the teller's counters which are made of yellow Siena marble the walls, and the mosaic floors. In addition, White employed faux marble scagliola columns, coffered ceilings and stairs and skylights made of cast iron. [13]

The exterior of the original building was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as an official city landmark in 1966, and the interior was given the same designation in 1994. [13] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It is currently "Capitale", restaurant, night club and event space which is popular as a wedding site. In 2012, the connected building at 124 Bowery, designed by York & Sawyer and completed in 1902, was also designated a landmark. [15]

110 East 42nd Street

Former headquarters at 110 East 42nd Street, now a restaurant and event space 110 E42 jeh.JPG
Former headquarters at 110 East 42nd Street, now a restaurant and event space

The bank decided to move its headquarters in 1920, and a new building was constructed from 1921 to 1923 at 110 East 42nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues across from Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. It was designed by York and Sawyer in Italian Romanesque Revival style, with William Louis Ayres as the partner in charge. [16] The huge interior, which measures 65 feet high, 80 feet wide and 197 1/2 feet long, utilizes marble, limestone, sandstone and bronze screens to create a space reminiscent of a basilica. [16] It has been called "one of the great spaces of New York." [17] A six-story addition to the east, which came to be called "The Chapel", was built in 1931–33. [16]

The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1996. The ground floor is now a Cipriani upscale event space.

Archives

In April 2019, workers cleaning out a basement in Brooklyn discovered century-old records of the Bowery Savings Bank. Archivists moved rapidly to secure at least some of these records. While the historical value was not immediately known, a historian told The New York Times they could “be priceless”. [18]

In the 1920s, Henry Miller wrote a short text about the architecture of this bank, in a short text he called mezzotint and whose title was A Bowery Phoenix.

Related Research Articles

Washington Mutual, Inc. was an American savings bank holding company based in Seattle. It was the parent company of WaMu Bank, which was the largest savings and loan association in the United States until its collapse in 2008.

Great Western Bank was a large retail bank that operated primarily in the Western United States. Great Western's headquarters were in Chatsworth, California. At one time, Great Western was one of the largest savings and loan in the United States, second only to Home Savings of America. The bank was acquired by Washington Mutual in 1997 for $6.8 billion.

H.F. Ahmanson & Co. was a California holding company named after Howard F. Ahmanson Sr. It was best known as the parent of Home Savings of America, once one of the largest savings and loan associations in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bouwerie Lane Theatre</span> United States historic place

The Bouwerie Lane Theatre is a former bank building which became an Off-Broadway theatre, located at 330 Bowery at Bond Street in Manhattan, New York City. It is located in the NoHo Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Street (Manhattan)</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

Grand Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It runs west/east parallel to and south of Delancey Street, from SoHo through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Bowery, and the Lower East Side. The street's western terminus is Varick Street, and on the east it ends at the service road for the FDR Drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. H. Robertson</span> American architect

Robert Henderson Robertson was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches. He is known for his wide-variety of works and commissions, ranging from private residences such as Jacqueline Kennedy's childhood home Hammersmith Farm and the Adirondacks Great Camp Santanoni to some of the earliest steel skyscrapers in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwich Savings Bank</span> American savings bank (1833–1981)

The Greenwich Savings Bank was an American savings bank based in New York City that operated from 1833 to 1981. At the time of its closure in 1981, it was the 16th largest bank in the U.S. by total deposits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metropolitan Savings Bank Building</span> United States historic place

The Metropolitan Savings Bank Building opened on May 30, 1867, at the northeast corner of Third Avenue and East 7th Street, in Manhattan, New York City. Its original address was 10 Cooper Institute. The building, which was designed by architect Carl Pfeiffer in Second Empire style, is four stories high, 45 feet (14 m) wide and 75 feet (23 m) deep, and was considered at the time it opened to be one of the most finely constructed edifices, "from garret to basement." Its facades were composed of white marble, with the upper floor being enclosed by a mansard roof. The building was fireproof, as no combustible materials were used during construction, either internally or externally. The entire cost of the structure was $150,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sohmer Piano Building</span> Residential building in Manhattan, New York

The Sohmer Piano Building, or Sohmer Building, is a Neo-classical Beaux-Arts building located at 170 Fifth Avenue at East 22nd Street, in the Flatiron District neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan, diagonally southwest of the Flatiron Building. Designed by Robert Maynicke as a store-and-loft building for real-estate developer Henry Corn, and built in 1897-98 it is easily recognizable by its gold dome, which sits on top of a 2-story octagonal cupola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dime Savings Bank of New York</span> Former bank in Brooklyn, New York (1859–2002)

The Dime Savings Bank of New York, originally the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, was a bank headquartered in Brooklyn, New York City. It operated from 1859 to 2002.

Bank United Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas, was a broad-based financial services provider and the largest publicly traded depository institution headquartered in Texas before its merger with Washington Mutual in 2001. Bank United Corp. conducted its business through its wholly owned subsidiary, Bank United, a federally chartered savings bank. The company operated a 155-branch community banking network in Texas, including 77 in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, 66 in the greater Houston area, five in Midland, four in Austin, and three in San Antonio; operated 19 SBA lending offices in 14 states; was a national middle market commercial bank with 23 regional offices in 16 states; originated mortgage loans through 11 wholesale offices in 10 states; operated a national mortgage servicing business serving approximately 324,000 customers, and managed an investment portfolio. As of June 30, 2000, Bank United Corp. had assets of $18.2 billion, deposits of $8.8 billion, and stockholder's equity of $823 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel D. Badger</span> American architect

Daniel D. Badger was an American founder, working in New York City under the name Architectural Iron Works. With James Bogardus, he was one of the major forces in creating a cast-iron architecture in the United States. Christopher Gray of The New York Times remarks: "Most cast-iron buildings present problems of authorship – it is hard to tell if it was the founder or the architect who actually designed the facade."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Germania Bank Building (New York City)</span>

The Germania Bank Building is a historic building at 190 Bowery, on the northwest corner of the intersection with Spring Street in Manhattan, New York City. It was the third building of the Germania Bank, which was founded in New York City in 1869. The building was designed in a Renaissance Revival or Beaux Arts style by Robert Maynicke and was built in 1898–99. The building became a New York City designated landmark on March 29, 2005. As of 2022, the building contains EmpireDAO, a coworking space for cryptocurrency and blockchain ventures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Street (Manhattan)</span> Street in Manhattan, New York

Spring Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, which runs west–east through the neighborhoods of Hudson Square, SoHo, and Nolita. It runs parallel to and between Dominick, Broome, and Kenmare Streets, and Vandam and Prince Streets. Address numbers ascend as Spring Street travels westward from the Bowery to West Street along the Hudson River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Brooklyn Tower</span> Supertall skyscraper in Brooklyn, New York

The Brooklyn Tower is a supertall mixed-use, primarily residential skyscraper in the Downtown Brooklyn neighborhood of New York City. Developed by JDS Development Group, it is situated on the north side of DeKalb Avenue near Flatbush Avenue. The main portion of the skyscraper is a 74-story, 1,066-foot (325 m) residential structure designed by SHoP Architects and built from 2018 to 2022. Preserved at the skyscraper's base is the Dime Savings Bank Building, designed by Mowbray and Uffinger, which dates to the 1900s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">110 East 42nd Street</span> Office skyscraper in Manhattan, New York

110 East 42nd Street, also known as the Bowery Savings Bank Building, is an 18-story office building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The structure was designed in the Italian Romanesque Revival style by York and Sawyer, with William Louis Ayres as the partner in charge. It is on the south side of 42nd Street, across from Grand Central Terminal to the north and between the Pershing Square Building to the west and the Chanin Building to the east. 110 East 42nd Street is named for the Bowery Savings Bank, which had erected the building as a new branch structure to supplement its original building at 130 Bowery. The building was erected within "Terminal City", a collection of buildings above the underground tracks surrounding Grand Central, and makes use of real-estate air rights above the tracks. The building is directly above the New York City Subway's Grand Central–42nd Street station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greenwich Savings Bank Building</span> Historic bank building in Manhattan, New York

The Greenwich Savings Bank Building, also known as the Haier Building and 1356 Broadway, is an office building at 1352–1362 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed as the headquarters of the Greenwich Savings Bank from 1922 to 1924, it occupies a trapezoidal parcel bounded by 36th Street to the south, Sixth Avenue to the east, and Broadway to the west. The Greenwich Savings Bank Building was designed in the Classical Revival style by York and Sawyer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building (175 Broadway)</span> Historic bank building in Brooklyn, New York

The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building, also known as the Weylin and 175 Broadway, is a former bank building at 175 Broadway in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. Constructed as the headquarters of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank in 1875 and subsequently expanded several times, it occupies the northwest corner of Broadway and Driggs Avenue, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge. The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Building was designed in the Classical Revival style by George B. Post, with interiors by Peter B. Wight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowery Savings Bank Building (130 Bowery)</span> Historic bank building in Manhattan, New York

The Bowery Savings Bank Building, also known as 130 Bowery, is an event venue and former bank building in the Little Italy and Chinatown neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Constructed for the defunct Bowery Savings Bank from 1893 to 1895, it occupies an L-shaped site bounded by Bowery to the east, Grand Street to the south, and Elizabeth Street to the west. The Bowery Savings Bank Building was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White. Since 2002, it has hosted an event venue called Capitale. The building's facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Bank Building</span> Bank and apartment building in Manhattan, New York

The Apple Bank Building, also known as the Central Savings Bank Building and 2100 Broadway, is a bank and residential building at 2100–2114 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed as a branch of the Central Savings Bank, now Apple Bank, from 1926 to 1928, it occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by 73rd Street to the south, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, 74th Street to the north, and Broadway to the west. The Apple Bank Building was designed by York and Sawyer in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles, patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo.

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Bowery Bank leads in Mutual Savings; Heads list of Institutions in the United States". The New York Times . March 2, 1930. p. 48.
  2. "Bowery Savings Bank First Floor Interior" (PDF). Neighborhood Preservation Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved May 24, 2014. The Bowery Savings Bank building, constructed in 1893-93 on the site of the bank's first building ... (established 1834)
  3. Robards, Terry (August 9, 1976). "Bowery Savings Now 2nd Biggest; Philadelphia Institution Wins Growth Race With Less Restriction on Deposits". The New York Times . p. 41. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
  4. "Ahmanson to Buy Bowery Savings Bank of New York for $200 Million". Los Angeles Times . October 6, 1987.
  5. Berg, Eric N. (October 6, 1987). "Bowery Savings Bank Is Sold for $200 Million". The New York Times .
  6. Roosevelt, Phil (April 12, 1992). "N.Y.'s landmark Bowery Savings changing its name" . Dallas Morning News . p. 15H. The Bowery Savings Bank, founded in 1834, will become Home Savings of America on April 20, according to its Los Angeles-based parent, H.F. Ahmanson and Co. The thrift company said it is striving to establish a nationwide identity around the Home Savings of America moniker. That is the name of its flagship unit, the nation's largest thrift. Ahmanson, which acquired Bowery in 1988, said the Home Savings of America name also will be adopted by its two smaller New York thrifts -- Home Savings Bank and Savings of America
  7. "The Company Name Game; Is Corporate America Having an Identity Crisis?". The New York Times . July 15, 1992. Fleet-Norstar Financial Group became Fleet Financial Group and the Bowery Savings Bank took the name of its parent, Home Savings of America.
  8. Iwata, Edward (May 15, 1995). "Ahmanson selling New York branches". San Francisco Chronicle .
  9. Hansell, Saul (May 16, 1995). "Greenpoint to Pay $660 Million For 60 Home Savings Branches". The New York Times .
  10. Atlas, Riva D. (February 17, 2004). "North Fork to Acquire GreenPoint Financial for $6.3 Billion". The New York Times .
  11. Dash, Eric (March 13, 2006). "Capital One to Buy North Fork for $14.6 Billion". The New York Times .
  12. The American Experience, PBS, archived from the original on April 25, 2009
  13. 1 2 3 4 NYCLPC, pp. 46–47
  14. White & Willensky with Leadon, p.93
  15. Postal, Matthew. "Bowery Bank of New York Building Designation Report" Archived November 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (June 26, 2012)
  16. 1 2 3 NYCLPC, p.107
  17. White & Willensky with Leadon, p.314
  18. "Spared From the Shredder (for Now): 'Priceless' Bank Records of Old New York". The New York Times. April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2019.

Bibliography