CHESTER, - Delaware County PA History

32 CIIE.':iTEH, PENNSYLVANIA.
The present quarters of the bank arc at NO.9 \Vest Thinl
Street. The interior has recently been remodelled to keep
pace with a g.1'Owing business, and the facilities for satisfactory
transaction of business arc excellent.
BUILDING ANI> LOAN ASSOCIATIONS.
\Ve have twelve building associations in Chester, whose regular
monthly receipts amount to SI 8,000. They mostly issue
series yearly. Some of the AS:iociations issue them half yearly,
thus enabling stockholders who desire to invest, or those who
wish to avail themselves of the facilities these associations
afford in the erection or purchase of houses, to enter at any
time.
They loan very nearly to the full value of a property, and arc
therefore of practical usc to many who cannot obtain private
loans because greater margins arc looked for by individual
investors. . Besides the existing associations, as many mOI'e
have run out and have been successfully wound up. There are,
however, a large number of series of the old associations which
arc still in active existence. The associations now running
represent an actual capital of three millions of dollars, and
those which have expired, represented a capital nearly or quite
as large, showing an associated capital brought together mainly
by the mechanics and laboring men of Chester, of about six
millions of dollars.
Probably two-thirds of this amount was loaned for the purpose
of purchasing 01' in payment for dwellings, and generally
by the occupants of such houses. This would indicate that
loans had been made at one time or another upon more than
three thousand of the four thousand dwellings in the old city
proper. It will be seen, therefore, that through the instrumentality
of these unassuming associations, which have existed as
a co-incident of Chester's growth, its citizens have become to a
large extent, the owners of their dwelling houses.
Following is a list of the associations now in opcl'ation, with
the number of shares of each: