Bank of North America - Bank of Pennsylvania

Bank of Pennsylvania

After a change of party in Pennsylvania's legislature in 1786 the Bank of North America was re-chartered within the Commonwealth in 1787, but under more restrictive conditions that would hinder it from performing its intended role as a central bank.

John Nixon was the first director of the Bank of Pennsylvania. Morris subscribed 10,000 pounds sterling to fund it. It was not a bank in the ordinary sense but an organization formed for the purpose of financing supplies for the army. In 1782, the Bank of North America superseded the Bank of Pennsylvania. Serving from 1792 to 1808, Nixon succeeded the first president of the Bank of North America, Thomas Willing, who went on to become the first president of the First Bank of the United States. Nixon was in turn succeeded by John Morton, who served as President until 1822. William Frederick Havemeyer was its president from 1851 to 1861 and brought it successfully through the crisis of 1857. After it had become a National Bank in 1865, a president of the same name presided over its liquidation in 1908.

The Bank of Pennsylvania was re-established in 1793, with a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and branches were opened in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Reading, and Easton. The original branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania remained in business in Pennsylvania through the 19th and 20th centuries under a variety of other names including First Pennsylvania Bank and, before its acquisition by Wells Fargo, Wachovia, First Union Bank and CoreStates, operated under national bank charter #1. Wachovia (as of November, 2012) operated a branch at the northwest corner of S. 6th and Chestnut Sts. in Philadelphia, diagonally opposite Independence Hall, which was the original site of the Bank of North America. This branch is the longest continuously operating branch bank in the United States, operating in that location since 1781. Ironically, Wachovia merged in 2001 with North Carolina's First Union Bank, which also numbers among its predecessors the Bank of North America. Following Wells Fargo's acquisition of Wachovia, Wells Fargo adopted Charter #1.