National Bank of Commerce, 1891

From Commercial and Architectural St. Louis by George Washington Orear (1891). The National Bank of Commerce was among the twenty largest banks in the country due to its status as a "correspondent" bank; prior to the Federal Reserve System in 1913, banks relied on larger, regional banks for credit and liquidity. National Bank of Commerce was such a bank. National Bank of Commerce was liquidated and then recapitalized after the Panic of 1907, then later merged into the Commerce Trust Company, eventually forming Commerce Bank. It is unclear when the building was constructed or demolished. [Emporis] and [Built St. Louis] record an incarnation of the National Bank of Commerce was built in 1902 and demolished in either 1977 or 1980. However, a photograph of this building on Built St. Louis shows the building above (obviously built prior to 1902). In either case, the building was located at North Broadway and Olive.

1 comment:

Robert Powers said...

The building in the photograph is the Old Jaccard Building, which was... something like the third home of the National Bank of Commerce. It was torn down in the 1920s and replaced by the present Marquette Building.

National Bank of Commerce moved into a new building directly across the street in 1902 - the SE corner of Olive and Broadway. That's the one that came down in the late 1970s.