Dollar Savings Bank Building

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

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

  1. 1932

    November

    The Dollar Savings Bank starts its Fordham branch on the Concourse

    Chartered in 1890 and first housed at 2808 Third Avenue as the Bronx's first savings bank, the Dollar merged with the Fordham Savings Bank in 1932 and bought a lot near Fordham Road that September. A three-story apartment house was torn down, and construction of a $250,000 branch by Halsey, McCormack & Helmer began in November 1932. It was finished in October 1933 with room for 6,000 safe-deposit boxes.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1933

    Bank president Howell Taylor Manson opens the new Fordham branch

    Howell Taylor Manson, a Greenpoint native who started as a bank clerk in 1895 and led the Dollar Savings Bank from 1925 to 1941, launched its branch expansion. He opened the Fordham branch at 2516 Grand Concourse in 1933, and the next year the trustees bought three more lots to the north for the enlargement that followed.

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

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1938

    December 10

    A northern annex opens with 23 more teller windows

    Architect Adolf Muller designed a 55-foot-tall annex on the lots north of the 1933 branch, which opened on December 10, 1938. The addition brought another entrance, a department for opening accounts, 15 safe-deposit booths and 23 teller windows, with plaques about thrift above the new windows. By then the bank counted 132,000 customers and assets of $119 million.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1949

    A ten-story office wing and clock tower complete the bank

    By 1948 the Dollar was the sixth-largest savings bank in the country, and from 1949 to 1952 it added a ten-story office wing whose clock tower rises 50 feet above the roof. The four clock faces are 12 feet across, and Liberty Head dollar plaques sit above the entrances and the tenth story. Adolf L. Muller of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer worked on all three phases, which pair Art Deco motifs with the oversized proportions and solid granite slabs of classical architecture.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1957

    Angelo Magnanti's murals of Bronx history fill the banking hall wall

    The east wall of the double-height banking hall carries five murals about the history of the Bronx, designed by the Italian artisan Angelo Magnanti and put up in pieces through 1957. The column-free hall also has red marble pilasters and a ribbed plaster ceiling with silver-gilt and gold leaf.

    “The eastern wall has five murals about the Bronx's history, which were designed by Italian artisan Angelo Magnanti and installed in pieces through 1957.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1992

    State regulators seize Dollar Dry Dock and Emigrant takes the branch

    In 1983 the Dollar Savings Bank was folded into the Dollar Dry Dock Savings Bank. In 1992 the New York State Banking Department seized Dollar Dry Dock and its 21 branches, naming the FDIC receiver, and the Grand Concourse branch passed to Emigrant Savings Bank. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the exterior and banking hall on July 19, 1994.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2013

    Developer Ivan Diaz buys the bank and its broken clock tower

    After a social-service agency that bought the tower in 2005 went bankrupt, the tower decayed and its clocks broke; writer Avery Corman emailed the borough president about it, and Jefferson Realty Associates said people shot at the clock at night. In 2013 developer Ivan Diaz paid $4 million for the tower and $2 million for the banking room. Apple Bank's branch closed in 2014.

    “…people fired bullets at the clock at night after it had broken.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2024

    The old banking hall reopens as a Fine Fare supermarket

    With Aufgang Architects restoring the long-vacant interior for Maddd Equities, the old banking hall opened as a Fine Fare supermarket in 2024. On November 18, 2024, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2026

    August

    Lehman College opens the Lehman Grand dormitory in the building

    In 2025 CUNY's Lehman College signed a lease on part of the old bank building for a 184-bed student dormitory. Named Lehman Grand, it opened in August 2026.

    “Lehman College of the City University of New York agreed to lease part of the building as a 184-bed dormitory.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 8 buildings with stories in Fordham