Thursday, January 22, 2004
Old-timer reflects on banks in the neighborhood
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
The announcement of the merger of JPMorgan Chase with Bank One Corporation invokes the memories of bank changes in our area, and their impact on our lives.
In 1950, when I opened my first bank account at the Chemical Bank and Trust branch on corner Park Avenue South (then Fourth Avenue) and 17th Street, the area between Union Square and Madison Square was a regular banking center. A block away, on 18th Street, was what became Manufacturers Hanover, across the street was Irving Trust, with another branch a block away, and a gigantic Chase center at Met Life, One Madison Avenue. They are now gone, or mutated , as are the local savings banks, with my beloved Union Square Savings Bank now a theatre. Amalgamated, at Union Square West, is the only survivor in its original form.
Irving Trust, organized 1851 (the name is associated with the diplomat and author Washington Irving), was the first to go, absorbed by Bank of New York in 1988. My main bank, Chemical, became Chemical Corn Exchange in 1954, merged with Manny Hanny in 1991, the 17th Street branch was closed soon after the 1996 merger with Chase, the survivor branch at 18th Street moved upstairs at the same location in 2002, leaving only an ATM room downstairs, with the original main floor destined to be an Oriental restaurant, food being the main growth industry in our two income family environment.
What is the impact of these banking events on the T&V country’s economy? All these mergers, paid for by labor savings through technology and job consolidations, caused job losses, not just at the closed branches but also those in the back offices, in accounting and computer operations. James L. Dimon of Bank One, (formerly with Sanford Weill’s Travelers Group and Citicorp) destined to be the CEO of the new merged entity, is known to have made his mark by slashing jobs and perks.
The former Chemical, our long-time bank, has a lmajor history of mergers. The NY Chemical Manufacturing Co was founded in 1823 by six merchants interested in making solvents, dyes, drugs and paints,, and had its charter soon amended to allow banking, entering that profitable business in 1844 (the chemical side was liquidated in 1851). It became Chemical Bank & Trust Co. in 1929.
The small Corn Exchange Bank was founded 1852, and expanded through mergers and acquisitions, such as that of the 1867 Eleventh Ward Bank and the 1889 Union Square Bank in 1902.
The two merged into Chemical Corn Exchange Bank in 1954, shortened to Chemical Bank in 1969. In 1959 it acquired the prestigious New York Trust Company, and in 1975 it picked up Security National Bank (founded as NY Sec &Trust in 1889).
In 1991 the now Chemical Banking Co, a banking pioneer with its ATM (NYCE) system, merged with Manufacturers Hanover Corp. to become the Chemical Banking Corporation 5th largest in the nation. In 1996 it joined with Chase Manhattan Company, forming the 3rd largest. Then, in Dec 2000 Chase Manhattan merged with J. P. Morgan & Co., Incorporated, as JPMorgan Chase.
The Chase bank started in life in 1799 as the Manhattan Company, founded by Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and other prominent New Yorkers to solve a health crisis, caused by an outbreak of yellow fever, traced to untreated water. The water company, funded with an allotment of $2 million, was overcapitalized, and put the extra cash into banking. The Bank of the Manhattan Company, among others, financed the Erie Canal, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes
In 1877 Chase National Bank (named after Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase, author of the 1863 –4 National Banking Acts) came on the scene. A major loser in the crash of October 29, 1929 and in the subsequent Depression that caused the closing of 5,000 banks by 1932, it recovered, led by Winthrop P. Aldrich and subsequently by John J. McCloy (former president of World Bank and US High Commissioner for Germany). The latter brought about the complicated merger with Manhattan, 1951-55, with “Jonah swallowing the whale.”. Aldrich’s nephew David Rockefeller became the bank’s co-CEO, and was material in the building of the massive headquarters structure that overwhelms the city’s harborscape, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and in internationalizing the business. This period served as the background for Emma Lathen’s (two lady writers, one e former Chase executive) popular a clef murder mysteries, with Bradford Withers as the globe-trotting CEO character. .
The House of Morgan, started by Junius P. Morgan, became the nation’s foremost banking power, acting as the national bank and Federal Reserve under his son J. Pierpont Morgan, the consolidator and Trust builder in the railroad, electric (GE) and natural resources (US Steel) worlds. The 1913 Italian Renaissance building at Wall and Broad, once its headquarters, now stands forlorn and nearly empty amid the bustle surrounding the New York Stock Exchange across from it. In 1935, responding to the the Banking Act of 1933, it split out its securities firm, as Morgan Stanley & Co. The parent, J. P. Morgan and Co., Incorporated, merged with Guaranty Trust in 1959, and became Morgan Guaranty Trust.
About Manufacturers Hanover, whose genial CEO John McGillicuddy led Chemical until the Chase merger. Although MH was the product of a 1961 marriage of banks named Manufacturers National (1853) and Hanover (1851, quartered at historic India House), it has distinguished forebears dating back to 1812.
The announcement of the merger of JPMorgan Chase with Bank One Corporation invokes the memories of bank changes in our area, and their impact on our lives.
In 1950, when I opened my first bank account at the Chemical Bank and Trust branch on corner Park Avenue South (then Fourth Avenue) and 17th Street, the area between Union Square and Madison Square was a regular banking center. A block away, on 18th Street, was what became Manufacturers Hanover, across the street was Irving Trust, with another branch a block away, and a gigantic Chase center at Met Life, One Madison Avenue. They are now gone, or mutated , as are the local savings banks, with my beloved Union Square Savings Bank now a theatre. Amalgamated, at Union Square West, is the only survivor in its original form.
Irving Trust, organized 1851 (the name is associated with the diplomat and author Washington Irving), was the first to go, absorbed by Bank of New York in 1988. My main bank, Chemical, became Chemical Corn Exchange in 1954, merged with Manny Hanny in 1991, the 17th Street branch was closed soon after the 1996 merger with Chase, the survivor branch at 18th Street moved upstairs at the same location in 2002, leaving only an ATM room downstairs, with the original main floor destined to be an Oriental restaurant, food being the main growth industry in our two income family environment.
What is the impact of these banking events on the T&V country’s economy? All these mergers, paid for by labor savings through technology and job consolidations, caused job losses, not just at the closed branches but also those in the back offices, in accounting and computer operations. James L. Dimon of Bank One, (formerly with Sanford Weill’s Travelers Group and Citicorp) destined to be the CEO of the new merged entity, is known to have made his mark by slashing jobs and perks.
The former Chemical, our long-time bank, has a lmajor history of mergers. The NY Chemical Manufacturing Co was founded in 1823 by six merchants interested in making solvents, dyes, drugs and paints,, and had its charter soon amended to allow banking, entering that profitable business in 1844 (the chemical side was liquidated in 1851). It became Chemical Bank & Trust Co. in 1929.
The small Corn Exchange Bank was founded 1852, and expanded through mergers and acquisitions, such as that of the 1867 Eleventh Ward Bank and the 1889 Union Square Bank in 1902.
The two merged into Chemical Corn Exchange Bank in 1954, shortened to Chemical Bank in 1969. In 1959 it acquired the prestigious New York Trust Company, and in 1975 it picked up Security National Bank (founded as NY Sec &Trust in 1889).
In 1991 the now Chemical Banking Co, a banking pioneer with its ATM (NYCE) system, merged with Manufacturers Hanover Corp. to become the Chemical Banking Corporation 5th largest in the nation. In 1996 it joined with Chase Manhattan Company, forming the 3rd largest. Then, in Dec 2000 Chase Manhattan merged with J. P. Morgan & Co., Incorporated, as JPMorgan Chase.
The Chase bank started in life in 1799 as the Manhattan Company, founded by Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and other prominent New Yorkers to solve a health crisis, caused by an outbreak of yellow fever, traced to untreated water. The water company, funded with an allotment of $2 million, was overcapitalized, and put the extra cash into banking. The Bank of the Manhattan Company, among others, financed the Erie Canal, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes
In 1877 Chase National Bank (named after Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase, author of the 1863 –4 National Banking Acts) came on the scene. A major loser in the crash of October 29, 1929 and in the subsequent Depression that caused the closing of 5,000 banks by 1932, it recovered, led by Winthrop P. Aldrich and subsequently by John J. McCloy (former president of World Bank and US High Commissioner for Germany). The latter brought about the complicated merger with Manhattan, 1951-55, with “Jonah swallowing the whale.”. Aldrich’s nephew David Rockefeller became the bank’s co-CEO, and was material in the building of the massive headquarters structure that overwhelms the city’s harborscape, at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and in internationalizing the business. This period served as the background for Emma Lathen’s (two lady writers, one e former Chase executive) popular a clef murder mysteries, with Bradford Withers as the globe-trotting CEO character. .
The House of Morgan, started by Junius P. Morgan, became the nation’s foremost banking power, acting as the national bank and Federal Reserve under his son J. Pierpont Morgan, the consolidator and Trust builder in the railroad, electric (GE) and natural resources (US Steel) worlds. The 1913 Italian Renaissance building at Wall and Broad, once its headquarters, now stands forlorn and nearly empty amid the bustle surrounding the New York Stock Exchange across from it. In 1935, responding to the the Banking Act of 1933, it split out its securities firm, as Morgan Stanley & Co. The parent, J. P. Morgan and Co., Incorporated, merged with Guaranty Trust in 1959, and became Morgan Guaranty Trust.
About Manufacturers Hanover, whose genial CEO John McGillicuddy led Chemical until the Chase merger. Although MH was the product of a 1961 marriage of banks named Manufacturers National (1853) and Hanover (1851, quartered at historic India House), it has distinguished forebears dating back to 1812.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 6:31 PM 
