page_title: Chemical Bank
section_title: 1900–1946
hierarchical_section_title: Chemical Bank / History / 1900–1946
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior bank lobby of Chemical National Bank (Chemical Bank) ca. 1913
context_page_description: Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world.
  Beginning in 1920 and accelerating in the 1980s and 1990s, Chemical was a leading consolidator of the U.S. banking industry, acquiring Chase Manhattan Bank, Manufacturers Hanover, Texas Commerce Bank and Corn Exchange Bank among others. After 1968, the bank operated as the primary subsidiary of a bank holding company that was eventually renamed Chemical Banking Corporation.
  Following Chemical's acquisition of Chase in 1996, the bank adopted the Chase brand. What was once Chemical forms the core of today's JPMorgan Chase.
context_section_description: By the first decade of the 20th century, Chemical had one of the strongest reputations in banking but as a business was in decline, losing accounts each year.  Unlike many of its peers, Chemical had been reluctant to expand into securities and other businesses and had not paid interest on bank accounts.  Both practices, considered to be highly conservative, had allowed Chemical to develop a large capital reserve but were not attracting customers.  William H. Porter, a prominent banker of the era, was named president of the bank in 1903 after the death of the previous president George G. Williams.  Porter would leave Chemical seven years later to become a partner at J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1910 and was succeeded by Joseph B. Martindale, who was named president in 1911.
  In 1917, Chemical named a new president of the bank, Herbert Twitchell, after the death of Joseph B. Martindale.  It was uncovered, just months after Martindale's death, that the former Chemical president had stolen as much as $300,000 from the account of Ellen D. Hunt, a niece of Wilson G. Hunt.
  Twitchell initiated a major turnaround of Chemical, setting up a trust business and reversing Chemical's policy of not paying interest on cash accounts.   These steps along with other initiatives, resulted in an increase in deposits from $35 million to $81 million by 1920.  In 1920, Twitchell was succeeded by Percy H. Johnston and remained with the bank as chairman of the board. Johnston would hold the presidency of the bank through 1946 at which time the bank had grown to become the seventh largest in the U.S.
  In 1920, Chemical completed its first major acquisition, merging with Citizens National Bank.  The acquisition of Citizens National, a small New York commercial bank, increased Chemical's assets to more than $200 million with  more than $140 million of deposits.  In 1923, Chemical established its first branch and by the end of the 1920s had opened a dozen branches in Manhattan and Brooklyn as well as a branch in London, its first international presence.
  In 1929, Chemical reincorporated as a state bank in New York as Chemical Bank & Trust Company and merged with the United States Mortgage & Trust Company, headquartered on the Madison Avenue and 74th Street.  During the Depression-era of the 1930s, Chemical's deposits grew by more than 40% and in 1941, the bank reached $1 billion of assets.  During this period, Chemical also established Chemical National Company, a securities underwriting business.
caption: Interior of Chemical National Bank offices at 270 Broadway, ca. 1913
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