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African American Heritage Trail, Washington, DC
Industrial Bank of Washington
2000 11th Street, NW
Industrial Bank stands as a testament to the Black business movement that began in the 1880s in downtown Washington and spread to the U Street area by the 1900s. Industrial Bank was the only Black-owned financial institution in the city when laborer-turned entrepreneur John Whitelaw Lewis founded it in 1913. A few years later the bank moved from its first address, 2006 11th Street, to this building, which Lewis financed and architect Isaiah T. Hatton designed. Although forced to close briefly during the financial crisis that caused the Great Depression, Industrial Bank of Washington was reopened in 1934 by attorney Jesse Mitchell. |