Dollar Savings Bank

2526 Grand Conc | also 2530 Grand Concourse | Fordham | built 1938

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1933

    Howell T. Manson opens the Dollar Savings Bank's Fordham branch

    The Dollar Savings Bank, the first savings institution organized in the Bronx, merged with the Fordham Savings Bank in 1932 and bought a 50-foot lot near Grand Concourse and Fordham Road that September. Its president, Howell Taylor Manson, a Greenpoint native who led the bank from 1925 to 1941 and began its branch expansion, opened the bank's Fordham branch office, at 2516 Grand Concourse, in 1933.

    “Manson opened the new Fordham branch at 2516 Grand Concourse, designed by Halsey, McCormack & Helmer, in 1933.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1939

    January

    Adolf L. Muller extends the bank 100 feet along the Grand Concourse

    Having bought three more lots to the north, the bank opened its enlarged branch in January 1939. Designer Adolf L. Muller of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer stretched the facade to 150 feet, faced in polished Texas pink granite, keeping the original front as one of two matching entrance pavilions and adding an attic with three tablets bearing inscriptions on thrift.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1951

    The Fordham branch becomes the Dollar Savings Bank's headquarters as a clock tower rises

    In 1950 work began on a ten-story office block with a clock tower whose four faces stand 50 feet above it, bringing the frontage to 200 feet. Bank president Robert M. Catharine named the Fordham branch the bank's home office in 1951. The Landmarks Preservation Commission later read the move as a sign that Fordham had overtaken the Hub as the Bronx's commercial center.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1992

    February 21

    Emigrant Savings Bank buys the bank, and the building is split into two condominiums

    A February 1983 merger joined the Dollar with the Dry Dock Savings Bank as the Dollar Dry Dock Bank, which Emigrant Savings Bank bought in 1992. With that sale the Grand Concourse property became two condominiums, the banking facilities in one and the office floors in the other. Emigrant mostly added new signs and some exterior lighting.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 8 buildings with stories in Fordham