Main content

Saving Fund Society of Germantown and its Vicinity records

Notifications

Held at: Germantown Historical Society [Contact Us]5501 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19144

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Germantown Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

The Saving Fund Society of Germantown and its Vicinity was founded in 1854 in the Germantown Section of Philadelphia. It was organized by Samuel Buckley Morris (1791-1859), a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). At the outset, the Saving Fund Society of Germantown set out to be more than a money-making and money-lending institution--its founders wished to help the working classes accumulate sufficient funds to purchase homes or pay for financial emergencies (Hotchkin 338).

The Saving Fund Society of Germantown moved its headquarters to Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania in 1970. In 1987 the Society changed its name to Germantown Savings Bank and changed its organization type to stock savings bank. In 1994 it merged into Corestates Bank. Corestates was absorbed into another bank, which itself was absorbed and renamed several times thereafter.

Bibliography:

Hotchkin, Samuel Fitch. Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill. Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler & Co., 1889.

This collection is comprised of about 43 volumes of financial transactions and account books, 1860-1951; a small quantity of loose early records, circa 1874; and seven atlases of Philadelphia. The 43 volumes include various types of records, such as: deposits, expense accounts, daily cash settlements, interest maturing, signature book, summary of bonds, investments, index to depositors, interest account book, depositors ledger. The small quantity of loose early records include charters and supplements dating from around 1874. Of the seven atlases, five are published by G. W. Bromley & Co., and two are by Elvino V. Smith.

Gift of Germantown Savings Bank, 1995 (accession #1995.14).

Publisher
Germantown Historical Society
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
Sponsor
This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Access Restrictions

Contact Germantown Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.

Collection Inventory

Print, Suggest