Knickerbocker Trust Company

The Knickerbocker Trust Company was a bank in the United States that existed from 1884 to 1912. It was founded by Frederick G. Eldridge, a friend and classmate of John Pierpont Morgan. The Knickerbocker Trust Company was one of the banks with the highest deposits in its time and was largely responsible for the outbreak of the panic of 1907.

Crisis in 1907 and subsequent history

On October 10, 1907, Charles T. Barney, director of the company, with Charles W. Morse, Fritz Augustus Heinze and Otto Heinze met at the home of Barney in Fifth Avenue. Morse planned, together with the Heinze to take over the shares of United Copper Company, and stated that he keep it 1.5 to 3 million dollars required. The Knickerbocker Trust Company granted him the credit for it. This acquisition failed and Barney were encouraged to resign as director. On October 21, 1907 announced the National Bank of Commerce, they would no longer accept exchange the Knickerbocker Trust Company, which the investors of the Knickerbocker Trust Company to motivated to want to withdraw their deposits. Barney went to John Pierpont Morgan, but he refused to receive him. Barney shot himself on November 14, 1907., The banking system experienced a loss of confidence and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from January to November 1907 increased by 48 percent. To establish trust, Congress in 1913 created by law the Federal Reserve System.

A few weeks after the forced closure paid the Knickerbocker Trust Company, all investors, including interest. 1912 were acquired their liabilities through the Columbia Trust Company and the Columbia - Knickerbocker Trust Company formed. This company was taken over in 1923 by the Irving Trust Corporation, which was acquired in 1989 by Bank of New York.

Building

The head office of the bank was 66 Broadway, there were branches in Harlem and the Bronx. Had a branch of the Trust in a designed by McKim, Mead, and White temple in the Roman style, on the northwest side of the intersection 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was built from 1902 to 1904 across from the Waldorf - Astoria. The design by Stanford White allowed the stocking of the building to another nine floors. In 1958, the emphasis of the pilasters were removed from the façade.