Essex Savings Bank seeks memorabilia of 150 years - New Haven Register
Essex Savings Bank seeks memorabilia of 150 years
ESSEX  Essex Savings Bank is looking for a deposit of memories as it launches the celebration of its 150th anniversary.
Published 12:00 am EST, Monday, January 8, 2001
Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Gregory R. Shook is asking customers and area residents to gather up and share items of historical significance to the bank and community. The memorabilia will become part of a traveling display in bank branches.
"So many people collect interesting memorabilia that we are sure that there are items of historical importance that people in the community would love to share. We would much appreciate it if anyone who has old photos, original deeds to early homesteads, or any other memorabilia that they would like to share to contact us at the bank," Shook said.
"The history of the bank is inextricably tied with the history of the Connecticut River Valley itself," Shook said.
The founders of the bank consisted of a group of shipmasters, businessmen and entrepreneurs who gathered in 1848 seeking to form a bank that would provide a safe harbor for their fortunes and a financial resource for members of the local communities.
The first meeting of corporators was held July 30, 1851.
The bank opened a week later on Aug. 6, when the first passbook was issued to Susan Pratt, who deposited $150.
The bank's first president was Henry L. Champlin, a sea captain, shipmaster and owner of the first London line of packets from New York. After retiring from the sea he remained a ship owner and built a home in Essex on Champlin Square.
"For years the bank served as a gathering place for many of the old-time skippers who met there between voyages to discuss their adventures. One room of the bank was set aside as a place for them to meet, spin yarns and forge new business deals," Shook said.
The bank has managed to keep its autonomy in a climate of big-bank mergers by "its commitment to individual relationships, the neighborhood and by knowing the marketplace," Shook said.
In response to enormous changes in the industry over the last few years, the bank has expanded services to include a trust department, commercial banking and investment options, Shook said.
In the past five years, Essex Savings Bank has given back to the community a percentage of its profits, totaling about $660,000, to nonprofit organizations in the surrounding communities.
For more information, or to present memorabilia for the 150th celebration, call Alan Schumann, assistant vice president, at (860) 767-9238.