North Side Savings Bank, 3230 3rd Ave., Bronx, NY, 2015  

From James Trager's The New York Chronology, 2003, we learn, "1905: North Side Savings Bank is founded in the Bronx with offices at 3196 Third Avenue, near 161st Street. Headed by Irish-born John J. Barry, it will move in 1910 to 3230 Third Avenue, near 163rd Street, and grow as the borough's population increases."

The New York State Dept. of Financial Services website gives the following sequence:

	01/24/1905	NYS Chartered North Side Savings Bank
	10/31/1988	Acquire By Merger Richmond Hill Savings Bank
	12/31/1996	Merge To State North Fork Bank
	01/01/1997	LID Sold To Staten Island Savings Bank
	08/01/2007	Merge To Federal Capital One, N.A.

In April 1910 the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide announced, "In about two weeks work will be started on the erection of a banking house by the North Side Savings Bank on property on the east side of 3d av, north of 162d st."

This was followed only a few months later by John J. Barry's obituary in the New York Times, 26 Aug. 1910, pg. 7, reading, "John J. Barry, President of the North Side Savings Bank, who for a long time was Commissioner of Correction, died yesterday in St. Vincent's Hospital at the age of 61. He leaves a widow and nine children. Born in Ireland, he came to this country as a boy and went into the telegraph business, later becoming a contracting builder in the Bronx. He was a member of Tammany Hall, and was prominent politically in the Bronx. He served as Commissioner of Correction under Mayors Van Wyck and McClellan, and Mayor Gaynor wanted him to continue holding office, but his health this year forced him to resign. Mr. Barry was for years Treasurer of the Finance Committee of St. Vincent de Paul Society of the United States of which he had been President and Vice President. He lived at 1,331 Franklin Avenue, the Bronx."

Under new leadership the bank went ahead with its new building at 3230 3rd Ave. As reported in the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide, 24 December 1910, "The North Side Savings Bank, of 3196 3d av, will very shortly be in their new banking building, which is rapidly nearing completion on the east side of 3d av, south of 163d st. The facade of the building is of stone from cellar to roof. The building is two stories in height, with separate entrances to both banking rooms and offices." Then 18 February 1911, "North Side Savings Bank, formerly of 3196 3d av, Bronx, removed to their new banking-house at 3230 3d av. The new building is a 2-sty structure with a white stone front. The banking room has a ceiling 20 feet in height."

From 1911 to 1950/51 this building was the main office of the North Side Savings Bank. Then in the early 1950s the main office moved to 185 W. 231st St., and 3230 3rd Ave. became the 3rd Avenue branch. In 1992 the following Legal Notice appeared in the New York Times: "Legal Notice: Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, 209 Munoz Rivera Avenue, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, 00918, intends to apply to the Federal Reserve Board for permission to purchase the assets and assume the liabilities of a branch, located at 3230 Third Avenue, Bronx, New York, of North Side Savings Bank, 185 West 231st Street, Bronx, New York. ..." The last listing for North Side Savings Bank at this address in the Bronx telephone directory was 1997.

According to his entry in the 1900 U. S. Census John J. Barry (1850?-1910), founder of the North Side Savings Bank, was born March 1850 in Ireland and immigrated to the U. S. in 1872. He died, however, in August, 1910, at the age of 61. If this age is correct, he would have been born 1849.

President of the North Side Savings Bank after John J. Barry's death was John Gerhard Borgstede (1867-1945). His obituary in the New York Times, 10 Sept. 1945, pg. 19, read, "John G. Borgstede of 2 Fairway Drive, White Plains, N. Y., a founder and, since 1910, president of the North Side Savings Bank, 3230 Third Avenue, the Bronx, of which he had been a trustee since 1905, died Friday in the Polyclinic Hospital, Manhattan, at the age of 78. Mr. Borgstede, who had been Commissioner of Public Works for Bronx County thirty years ago, was a director of the Bronx County Trust Company, and the Wartburg Orphan Farm School in Mount Vernon; and a member of the Schnorrer Club of the Bronx, and the Masons. He leaves five daughters, Mrs. Albert C. Mau, Mrs. J. George Gross, Mrs. Arthur A. Ekirch, Miss J. Dorothy Borgstede and Mrs. Edmund F. Wagner; nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren."

Mrs. Arthur A. Ekirch was Borgstede's daughter, Louise Borgstede (1895-1979), and her husband, Arthur Alphonse Ekirch (1883-1960), was an officer at North Side Savings Bank at its inception in 1905. Arthur A. Ekirch's obituary in the New York Times, 16 Dec. 1960, pg. 33, read, "White Plains, Dec. 14 - Arthur A. Ekirch, a trustee of the North Side Savings Bank and its retired vice president, died yesterday of a heart ailment in the main office of the bank at 185 West 231st Street, New York. He was 77 years old. Mr. Ekirch, who lived at 115 Grandview Avenue, was 21 years old when he was elected secretary of the bank in 1905. He retired in 1948."

This ad for the North Side Savings Bank appeared in the New York Times in 1909. Officers at the time were John J. Barry, Arthur A. Ekirch, and John G. Borgstede.

Copyright © 2015 Walter Grutchfield