Second Bank

Architecture Betsy Ross House Bourse Carpenter's Hall Churches City Hall Elderhostel Elfreths Alley Fine Arts Academy Friend's Meeting Independence Hall Liberty Bell Macy's Masonic Temple Old Town Reading Terminal Market Rittenhouse Square Ritz Hotel Second Bank Washington Square

Second Bank

of the

United States

 

Second Bank of the United States

Between 4th and 5th Streets, the splendor of the Second Bank of the United States confronts us. It is a superb example of the Greek Revival and one of Philadelphia's most handsome buildings. The architect was the same William Strickland who designed the Philadelphia Merchant's Exchange and the steeple of Independence Hall. The bank was built between 1819 and 1824. Its facades are adaptations of the Parthenon with north and south Doric porticoes.

 

 

interior

Inside, the great banking room has a barrel-vault ceiling springing from Ionic colonnades. Bought by the federal government in 1844, it was used as the Custom House until 1934 and is popularly known in Philadelphia as "the old Custom House."

 

the old Custom House

Today the bank houses the portrait gallery, containing over one hundred Revolutionary and Federal portraits. Many of the portraits were painted by noted artist Charles Willson Peale and once hung in his eponymous Peale Museum — for a time located on the upper floor of Independence Hall.

 

 

 


Peale Gallery

 

William Penn

 

Philadelphia Market

 

George Washington

 

 

 

Martha Curtis Washington

 

John Marshall

 

Patrick Henry

 

John Jay

 

Thomas Jefferson

 

Gouverneur Morris

 

Thomas Paine

 

David Rittenhouse

 

Robert Fulton

 

William Clark

 

Meriwether Lewis

 

Henry Knox

 

Robert Morris

 

Alexander Hamilton

 

Benjamin Franklin

 

John Paul Jones

 

Marquis de Lafayette

 

Richard Henry Lee

 

James Madison

 

Horatio Gates

 

Benjamin Rush

 

John Hancock

 

 

Baron von Steuben

 

 

Nathaniel Greene

 

Zebulon Montgomery Pike


On Bank Row

 

First National Bank

 

Philadelphia Bank

 

another Bank


Architecture Betsy Ross House Bourse Carpenter's Hall Churches City Hall Elderhostel Elfreths Alley Fine Arts Academy Friend's Meeting Independence Hall Liberty Bell Macy's Masonic Temple Old Town Reading Terminal Market Rittenhouse Square Ritz Hotel Second Bank Washington Square

Bellefonte Bethlehem Boone Homestead Boyhood Home Brandywine Battlefield CCC CCC Elderhostel Christiana Covered Bridges Eagles Mere Ephrata Cloister Fallingwater Fort Necessity Gettysburg Harrisburg Hershey Hopewell Furnace Jim Thorpe Juniata College Kennett Square Kentuck Knob Lancaster Lititz Longwood Gardens Philadelphia Quaker Steak Reading Shoofly Pie Union Deposit Valley Forge

World Heritage Mosaics Roman World Africa Antarctica Asia Atlantic Islands Australia Caribbean Central America Europe Indian Ocean Middle East North America Pacific Islands South America The Traveler Recent Adventures Adventure Travel

 

People and Places