The Bank of Pennsylvania was established on July 17, 1780, by Philadelphia merchants to provide funds for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Within a year after the Union was founded in 1781, the Bank of North America superseded the Bank of Pennsylvania.
In 1793, the Bank of Pennsylvania was re-established, with a charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and branches were opened in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Reading, and Easton. The bank collapsed in September 1857, with Thomas Allibone of the family firm Thomas Allibone & Co. serving as its president.
In 1870, the only remaining piece of the bank headquarters buildingââ"âone of its Ionic stone columnsââ"âwas moved to Adrian, Michigan, where it was erected as a Civil War Memorial in commemoration of the 84 local soldiers who died in the American Civil War.