The Provident Loan Society of New York is a

not-for-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

headquartered at 346

Park Avenue South Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...

on the corner of 25th Street in the Rose Hill neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It was created in the 19th century by a group of influential New Yorkers as an alternative to the

loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

s of the day. Founders include

Robert W. De Forest Robert Weeks DeForest (1848–1931) was an American lawyer, financier, and philanthropist. Early life Robert Weeks DeForest was born to Henry Grant and Julia Mary Weeks DeForest in New York City on April 25, 1848, of French Huguenot ancestr ...

James Speyer James Joseph Speyer (July 22, 1861 – October 31, 1941) was an American banker based in the city of New York. Speyer was a well-known figure on Wall Street and the firm of Speyer & Co. was well respected. It closed in 1939. Speyer was actively i ...

, Otto T. Bannard,

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

Jacob H. Schiff Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ja ...

August Belmont, Jr. August Belmont Jr. (February 18, 1853 – December 10, 1924) was an American financier. He financed the construction of the early history of the IRT subway, original New York City subway (1900–1904) and for many years headed the Interborough R ...

and

Cornelius Vanderbilt II Cornelius "Corneil" Vanderbilt II (November 27, 1843 – September 12, 1899) was an American socialite and a member of the prominent United States Vanderbilt family. Noted forebears He was the favorite grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbil ...

. Today, Provident Loan Society of New York provides short-term cash loans to individuals secured by

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and diamond

jewelry Jewellery ( UK) or jewelry (U.S.) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western ...

, fine watches and silverware and is America's last remaining not-for-profit loan society created during the economic crisis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.Caskey, John P. (1996) ''Fringe Banking: Check-Cashing Outlets, Pawnshops, and the Poor'', New York:

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rail ...

. p.24. __TOC__ 223 East Houston Street

History

The Provident Loan Society of New York was created during the financial

panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

. In an uncertain economic environment amid foreclosures and bank failures, people sought cash from unregulated loan sharks and pawnbrokers. As a result, a group of powerful New York bankers and financiers pooled money together, pledging $35,000 each to establish a not-for-profit organization to provide short-term loans at a lower rate than the loan sharks. The organization was modeled on European financial institutions known as ''mont de piété'' (

mount of piety A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charitable organization, charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Pie ...

). The contributors included

Solomon Loeb Solomon Loeb (June 29, 1828 – December 12, 1903) was a German-born American banker and businessman. He was a merchant in textiles and later a banker with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Biography His father, a devout Jew, had been a small corn- and wine-de ...

, Alfred B. Mason,

Gustav Schwab Gustav Benjamin Schwab (19 June 1792 – 4 November 1850) was a German writer, pastor and publisher. Life Gustav Schwab was born in Stuttgart, the son of the philosopher Johann Christoph Schwab: he was introduced to the humanities early in li ...

Seth Low Seth Low (January 18, 1850 – September 17, 1916) was an American educator and political figure who served as the mayor of Brooklyn from 1881 to 1885, the president of Columbia University from 1890 to 1901, a diplomatic representative of t ...

and

, among others. The

New York State Legislature The New York State Legislature consists of the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of New York: The New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly. The Constitution of New York does not designate an official ...

passed a special act in 1894 incorporating The Provident Loan Society of New York. At its peak in 1962, the Society had seventeen locations around New York. As of 2017, there were five remaining locations."Locations"
Provident Loan Society website] Provident Loan 180 E79 jeh crop

Present

Today, Provident Loan states that it serves approximately 100,000 people annually. The maximum amount that the institution will loan is $100,000 for a term of six months at an annual interest rate of 26%. New York State laws governing pawnbrokers allow pawn shops to charge up to 48% annually. Provident Loan will not buy merchandise, however, only lend against its value. The Society maintains five locations: two in

– at its headquarters at 346 Park Avenue South and at 180 East 72nd Street; one in the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham section of

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, at 2573 Decatur Avenue; one in Queens, at 136-48 39th Avenue in

Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushing ...

, and one in Brooklyn, at 7804 Fifth Avenue in

Bay Ridge Bay Ridge is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by Sunset Park to the north, Dyker Heights to the east, the Narrows and the Belt Parkway to the west, and Fort Hamilton Army Base and ...

San Francisco Provident Loan Association

Other organizations

In 1912, prominent civic, financial and social leaders in San Francisco – the Hellman, Crocker, and Fleishhacker families were represented – founded the San Francisco Remedial Loan Association based on the model of the Provident Loan Society of New York. The organization changed its name to the San Francisco Provident Loan Association, and is still located in its original historic landmark building – also modeled on the New York society's building – at 932

Mission Street Mission Street is a north-south arterial thoroughfare in Daly City and San Francisco, California that runs from Daly City's southern border to San Francisco's northeast waterfront. The street and San Francisco's Mission District through which it r ...

on the corner of Mint Street in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of the city. Unlike the New York society, which remains a not-for-profit organization, the San Francisco association is now family-owned and operated. The business was bought by Frank Rusalem in 1954 and sold to Robert Chait in 1965. Since then, three generations of the Chait family have run the concern. In 2012, 66 Mint, an estate-jewelry business, was added, and a "Silicon Valley Diamond and Jewelry Buyers" location in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

was opened.Brawn, Tony (July 17, 2015
"66 Mint: a family legacy in S.F., and now Silicon Valley"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

References

External links

* {{URL, providentloan.com, the organization's official website 1894 establishments in New York (state) Financial services in the United States Organizations based in Manhattan Non-profit microfinance organizations based in North America Non-profit organizations based in New York City American companies established in 1894 Financial services companies established in 1894 Retail companies established in 1894 Organizations established in 1894 Pawn shops