Former Riggs Bank located next door to White House

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Posted at 2007/10/04/1233 by farkinga
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RTFA: http://library.thinkquest.org/2813/white/east.html

Riggs National Bank
1503 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
The Riggs Bank Building, completed in 1901, has been one of the city’s most prestigious financial institutions. Riggs has gained a symbolic status as the bank of official Washington, due to its proximity to the White House and the Treasury Department. Most presidents have even maintained an account or two here.

The bank lent $500,000 to army contractors in the first year alone of the Civil War. So powerful was the firm that the Riggs president even kept a desk in the main Treasury Building. Later banking reform under the Wilson Administration forced the company to state in its own building across the street.

Riggs Bank and its neighbor the American Security Site, stand at a site previously occupied by two buildings: the W.W. Corcoran Office Building, and the Branch Bank of the United States. Riggs Bank made its earlier home at the Branch Bank Building. It was here that President Lincoln deposited his pay during the Civil War. Later tenants of the buildings included the Chicago Times-Herald and the Chicago Evening Post. The buildings were torn down in the early 1900s and replaced with their current tenants.

Interesting sight-seeing, next time you’re in DC.

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