The Corn Exchange Bank, West Village, Manhattan

Frequently on the way to work I walk pass this intersection. I noticed some scaffolding go up around one of the buildings a while ago. I assumed they were just doing work on it. Pretty quickly the building was gone. Revealed on the building in front of the demolished building was some old signage for the Corn Exchange Bank.

I tried to do some research on the Corn Exchange Bank but it’s really hard to find much information since it no longer exists. The bank was founded in 1852 and opened its doors for business in 1853. the Corn Exchange was an aggressive retail bank that acquired many smaller community banks. As far as I can tell it was big in NY, with many branches, but also existed in other states like Wisconsin and Nebraska. In 1929 it became the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company and in 1954 it merged with Chemical Bank to become the Chemical Corn Exchange Bank. Chemical Corn’s merger with The New York Trust Company in 1959 was the last of the “Corn”. The name was then changed to Chemical Bank New York Trust Company. Many mergers and acquisitions followed and in 1996 Chemical merged with the Chase Manhattan Corporation forming what was then the largest bank holding company in the US. Chasethrives today as part of JPMorgan Chase. As for the building that the Corn Exchange Bank signage is painted on? It’s now a Chase branch, of course.

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