Dauphin Deposit Bank Building

Dauphin Deposit Bank Building. . The structure across the street is the oldest bank building in the Harrisburg Metropolitan Area and stands as an icon to the financial institution that helped to fuel the City's growth since the 1830's. Survivor of several Economic Panics, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and two World Wars, the banking operations in this building were guided from 1840 to 1945 by three generations of one of Harrisburg's most influential families, the McCormick's, and also by the Cameron's. The bank and these families were responsible for the founding of the City's primary cultural and educational institutions as well as many of its businesses and industries. Established in Harrisburg in 1834, what was originally known as the Harrisburg Savings Institution was by 1845 named the Dauphin Deposit Bank. The Bank played a strategic role in Harrisburg's emergence as a major industrial, railroad, commercial and financial center in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. The building, designed by local architect Samuel Holman, was erected in 1839 in the Greek Revival architectural style exemplifying a well-executed form of architecture traditionally associated with the banking industry in the United States. The bank grew to become a regional bank through the 20th Century. Note the granite hitching post on the front sidewalk that has been painstakingly preserved over the decades and may very well be as old as the bank building itself. , Top Photo , Dauphin Deposit Bank Building in 1890 showing that the building has been minimally altered since. , Bottom Photo , Line drawing of the Dauphin Deposit Bank Building circa 1850.