The Bank of Pennsylvania was established on July 17, 1780, by

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

merchants to provide funds for the Continental Army during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Its investors included George Meade & Co., with a £2,000 payment. Within a year after the Union was founded in 1781, the

Bank of North America The Bank of North America was the first chartered bank in the United States, and served as the country's first ''de facto'' central bank. Chartered by the Congress of the Confederation on May 26, 1781, and opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 17 ...

superseded the Bank of Pennsylvania. In 1793, the Bank of Pennsylvania was re-established, with a charter from the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and branches were opened in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...

, Lancaster, Reading, and Easton. The bank collapsed in September 1857, with Thomas Allibone of the family firm Thomas Allibone & Co. serving as its president. In 1870, the only remaining piece of the bank headquarters building—one of its iconic stone columns—was moved to Adrian, Michigan, where it was erected as a Civil War Memorial in commemoration of the 84 local soldiers who died in 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 ...

. File:Black Sawyers Working in front of the Bank of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia MET ap42.95.16.jpg, John Lewis Krimmel, ''Black Sawyers Working in front of the Bank of Pennsylvania'' (ca.1813)

References

Further reading