Away back in 1819â€”the year the S.S. Savannah made the first steam-driven voyage across the Atlanticâ€” the Bank of Savings was opened on July 3. Oddly enough, its first office was in a small room of a building in City Hall Park that had formerly served as the city’s alms house.
On the first day, 80 depositors opened savings accounts and deposited $2,807. The first depositor was a physician who lived on Cherry Street.
Many citizens of prominence have been associated with this oldest of New York’s savings banks. One of this State’s most remembered Governors, the Hon. DeWitt Clinton, was one of the original Directors. Hon. Philip Hone, a famous early mayor of New York, was President of The Bank for Savings from 1841 to 1851. Peter A. Jay, son of the eminent Chief Justice John Jay, was one of the first Trustees, as was Lieutenant-Colonel Brockholst Livingston, aide-de-camp to General Schuyler during the Revolutionary War.
The Bank for Savings with a main office at Fourth Avenue and 22nd Street and an uptown office at Third Avenue and 70th St., today has over 200,000 depositors and has total resources of over $200,000,000. It recently declared its 250th Consecutive Interest Dividend.