The Saving Fund Society of Germantown and its Vicinity was founded in 1854 in the Germantown Section of Philadelphia. It was organized by Samuel Buckley Morris (1791-1859), a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). At the outset, the Saving Fund Society of Germantown set out to be more than a money-making and money-lending institution--its founders wished to help the working classes accumulate sufficient funds to purchase homes or pay for financial emergencies (Hotchkin 338).
The Saving Fund Society of Germantown moved its headquarters to Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania in 1970. In 1987 the Society changed its name to Germantown Savings Bank and changed its organization type to stock savings bank. In 1994 it merged into Corestates Bank. Corestates was absorbed into another bank, which itself was absorbed and renamed several times thereafter.
Bibliography:
Hotchkin, Samuel Fitch. Ancient and Modern Germantown, Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill . Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler & Co., 1889.
From the guide to the Saving Fund Society of Germantown and its Vicinity records, 1860-1951, (Germantown Historical Society)
