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Second Bank of the United States
"The portico of the glorious edifice... always repays me for coming to Philadelphia."
-- Philip Hone, 1838.
Here stands the Second Bank of the United States. Established in 1816 to hold government deposits and regulate currency, it dominated American finance for more than a decade.
The temple-like bank had both priests and heretics. Bank President Nicholas Biddle preached the value of the bank, while U.S. President Andrew Jackson decried it as a "hydra of corruption." The "temple" was looted of its treasure when Jackson vetoed the recharter of the bank, distributing government deposits to smaller banks.
Now, long after the passions of finance and philosophy have subsided, we recognize the architecture -- not the institution -- as the real treasure of the Bank. Designed by William Strickland, it has been called the finest example of Greek Revival architecture in the United States. |