The "One Of The Oldest Banks In The United States" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just stopped to take a photograph of one of Lancaster's most beautiful buildings at the corner of East King and South Duke Streets in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was at one time a bank and still has the "Farmer's Trust Company Of Lancaster" across the front of it near the top of the building.  

Farmer's Trust Company Of Lancaster building on East King Street.

This was the same bank where my Dad opened an account for me in the early 1950s when I was a young boy. He wanted me to have the chance to save some of my earnings that I made while helping him at the wholesale jewelry store that he managed.  Can still remember walking into the bank with my little leather covered bank book and having them hand-letter the amount of my deposit in the book.  Only wish I still had that book today.  The Bank of Pennsylvania was the first bank in the city of Lancaster.  It was located on the north-east corner of West King and Prince Streets.  Before that time, merchants and traders kept their cash in strongboxes, loaned money to they friends and associates and conducted their own banking activities until they realized they were in need of a bank in town.  

Lancaster's Farmer''s Bank on the far left.

Then in 1810, citizens of the community established their own bank when they incorporated the Farmer's Trust Company Of Lancaster, "to promote agricultural improvements, extend domestic manufactures and increase trade."  That bank was located at 41 North Queen Street, but in 1814 it moved to a different location at the corner of East King and South Duke Streets.  That building still remains today, but it no longer is a bank as it was when it sat next to Miller's Hotel.  The Farmer's Trust Company of Lancaster has changed names many times over the past 200 years and today the bank that I first began with is now called  Wells Fargo.  During the past few years, in the month of September, my birth month, when I enter my bank for a withdrawal or deposit, a clerk will look at my account on his computer and will say, "Happy Birthday, Mr. Woods."  Then they will usually add, "You've been a member of our bank for over 65 years?"  They pose it in the form of a question instead of a statement, since they probably have a hard time realizing that someone actually could have been a member that long.  Last year I responded to the male clerk with..."Yes I have been...so how come I don't get special treatment by now?"  Always gets a good laugh.  An interesting note to add is about the scarcity of hard currency when the bank first opened in Lancaster.  It led to the printing of fractional paper currency, in denominations as low as five cents, ten cents and twenty cents.  At the time, printing was rather crude so counterfeiting was rather easy to do.  Not quite sure how that was handled.  Banking throughout the United States is so different today than it was in the early 1800s.  Hard to imagine what it must have been like in the 1800s.  Actually, it is hard for me to remember what it was like in the early 1950s when I first began going to the bank with my dad once a month.  I do remember how exciting it was to enter that big bank door in Lancaster, stand in line and then hand over a few dollars to be deposited in my account.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

Corner of East King and South Duke.
Check out the building next to the bank.  Used to be Miller's Hotel.

Beautiful architecture