The Shawneetown Bank State Historic Site is an historic

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

building in

Old Shawneetown, Illinois Old Shawneetown is a village in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village had a population of 193, down from 278 at the 2000 census. Located along the Ohio River, Shawneetown served as an important United States ...

, and is the oldest structure in Illinois built specifically as a bank. A

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

structure built in 1839–1841 in what was then called Shawneetown, it was the home of a series of banks into the 20th century. The building is brick with a limestone front façade.

Background

The

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of m ...

called Old Shawneetown "the gateway to the

Illinois Territory The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its ca ...

" and "the commercial center of early Illinois". The area was a profitable

salt mining Salt mining extracts natural salt deposits from underground. The mined salt is usually in the form of halite (commonly known as rock salt), and extracted from evaporite formations. History Before the advent of the modern internal combustio ...

area, and a

federal land office The General Land Office (GLO) was an independent agency of the United States government responsible for public domain lands in the United States. It was created in 1812 to take over functions previously conducted by the United States Department o ...

was established in the village in 1812. Settlers sought credit to buy land from the federal land office, and local business sought paper money to ease business transactions. Four privately-owned banks were chartered by the Illinois territorial legislature in 1816, and the first bank established in the

was by John Marshall, and named the Bank of Illinois or Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown. The authorization act was approved on December 28, 1816 by territorial governor

Ninian Edwards Ninian Edwards (March 17, 1775July 20, 1833) was a founding political figure of the State of Illinois. He served as the first and only governor of the Illinois Territory from 1809 to until the territory was dissolved in 1818. He was then one of t ...

, with a charter to operate until January 1, 1837 and provisions for the Territory and future State of Illinois to participate in the bank. Relevant text reproduced at At the very beginning, John Marshall operated the bank out of his home. The bank suspended operations in 1823 or 1824, after Illinois had become a state. However, at the recommendation of Governor Joseph Duncan, the legislature passed a new act on February 12, 1835, extending the charter to January 1857 and using the name State Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown. An act of March 4, 1837 increased the authorized

capital stock A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capi ...

from $300,000 to $1,400,000, of which $1,000,000 was reserved for the State and $400,000 for private investors. The

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major depression, which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment went up, and pessimism abound ...

caused holders of

banknotes A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

to turn them in at such a rate that the bank could not deliver

specie Specie may refer to: * Coins or other metal money in mass circulation * Bullion coins * Hard money (policy) * Commodity money * Specie Circular, 1836 executive order by US President Andrew Jackson regarding hard money * Specie Payment Resumption Ac ...

on demand, and the bank suspended specie payments; to avoid a charter provision forcing liquidation on suspension for 60 days, the state legislature made indefinite suspension legal twice, once in July 1837 and once in 1839. Nonetheless, the prosperity of the mid-1830s boosted the confidence of bankers.

Building and banks

The bank building of historic note was erected in 1839 and 1840, at a cost of $80,000, on the north corner of Main Street and what was then called Main Cross Street. The cornerstone was laid on August 3, 1839, and the bank building opened in 1841. This was not the most expensive of the transactions of the State Bank of Illinois, however: In the same period, it had loaned $80,000 to the state to complete the fifth state capitol, then under construction in Springfield. It also loaned another $200,000 to the commissioners of public works, on the promise of $500,000 in pledged securities, but neither the $500,000 pledge nor the $200,000 loan was ever paid. The bank finally failed in June 1842, with a banknote circulation of $1,300,000 () still outstanding. At liquidation, the bank's real estate lot, including the building, was evaluated as $83,336.74. The bank building was sold to Joel A. Matteson for $15,000. In 1853, then-governor Matteson started the State Bank of Illinois in the same building, under a free banking act. At the dawn of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Matteson feared that the Confederate forces might be able to overrun the area on short notice, and so closed the bank and sold the building, for only $6,500, to Thomas S. Ridgway. Ridgway took up residence in the building, and also, with John McKee Peeples, founded The First National Bank of Shawneetown in the building in 1865; both Ridgway's residence and the First National Bank were still in the building as of the mid-1870s. Thomas S. Ridgway remained president of the First National Bank until his death in 1897. His family continued to live in the bank until 1913. The building housed numerous financial institutions through the 1930s.

State ownership

The site was deeded to the state. The Shawneetown Bank was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1972 under the name State Bank. Some restoration was completed in the 1970s but much remained to be done, and the building was on the

Landmarks Illinois The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois – also known as Landmarks Illinois – is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1971 to prevent the demolition of the Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed Chicago Stock Exchange Building. A ...

list of the top 10 most endangered historical sites in 2009. The bank building was not available for tours as of 2017 and .

References

External links

* {{Protected areas of Illinois, collapsed Commercial buildings completed in 1840 1840s in Illinois Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois Buildings and structures in Gallatin County, Illinois Greek Revival architecture in Illinois Illinois State Historic Sites Illinois in the American Civil War National Register of Historic Places in Gallatin County, Illinois