The history of our banking headquarters

First Location: 18-22 Second Street. Photo 1964-65 B. Orr photograph. Cambridge Historical Commission.

East Cambridge Savings Bank’s present headquarters building at 292 Cambridge Street is actually its fourth location. The Bank’s archives document earlier sites.

1854: First Banking Location

May 13th and May 19th, 1854
At the first Trustees Meeting, a Committee of Investment composed of the following, was elected:
• Lorenzo Marrett
• Samuel Slocumb
• Norman S. Cate
• Silas B. Buck

May 13, 1854
Samuel Slocumb was authorized to confer with Directors of Lechmere Bank for the use of their Banking House.¹

“That two banks existed where there had been none may seem curious, but they served different purposes and different clientele. The Lechmere Bank was a profit-making commercial institution that made business loans to its customers, while the savings bank was a nonprofit institution that invested its depositors’ money in order to pay them interest.”²

May 19th, 1854
Samuel Slocumb reported that he had conferred with Directors of Lechmere Bank, and they consented to allow this Corporation the use of their “Banking House out of Banking Hours and the use of their room for the purpose of holding meetings when not occupied by Lechmere’s Directors.”

This request was most likely suggested by Lorenzo Marrett, a charter member of the Corporation and one of our first Trustees and “Committee of Investment” members. Mr. Marrett and Ephraim Buttrick, also a charter member, erected and owned the Lechmere Bank Building in 1853 and sold it to Lechmere Bank in 1856.

“Of pressed brick trimmed in brownstone, the building set the conservation tone that other East Cambridge banks followed in later decades. The pitch of the roof, the gable treated as a temple pediment, the complete entablature, and window trim were all Greek Revival. The only indication of the ascendant Italianate manner of the 1850s was found in the double windows with round brownstone archivolts supported on cast-iron columns.”²

Saturday, May 20th, 1854
East Cambridge Five Cents Savings Bank first opened its doors at this location, to conduct banking from 4:00-6:00 P.M. On the first day of business, thirty-seven deposits were made totaling $223.51 – with deposits ranging from six cents to fifty dollars.

Banking Hours:
Wednesday and Saturday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 p.m. 5 months later, at the October 4, 1854 Trustees Meeting, the banking hours were changed to “Every week day from 12:00-1:00 p.m.”

¹The Lechmere Bank building, 1853, was located at 172 Cambridge Street. The building was moved in 1895 to 18-22 Second Street and demolished in 1965, to make way for the site of the County Bank and Trust building. Source: Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge; Cambridge Historical Commission – Revised Edition, Susan E. Maycock. (Page 162)

²Survey of Architectural History in Cambridge; Cambridge Historical Commission – Revised Edition, Susan E. Maycock. (Page 162)