Industrial Bank is a historic African American-owned

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

based in Washington, D.C., United States. Industrial Bank has 9

branches A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includi ...

: four in D.C., 11th and U, Georgia Avenue, J.H. Mitchell, Anacostia Gateway; Two branches in Maryland; Oxon Hill, Forestville (coming soon to Largo, MD), two in Newark, NJ and a branch in Harlem, NY.

History

It was established in 1913 as the Industrial Savings Bank by John Whitelaw Lewis and originally operated out of the Laborers' Building and Loan Association building designed by

William Sidney Pittman William Sidney Pittman (April 21, 1875 – March 14, 1958) was an American architect who designed several notable buildings, such as the Zion Baptist Church and the nearby Deanwood Chess House in the Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He w ...

. An Industrial Bank building on U Street was designed by Isaiah Hatton a few years later. The bank closed in 1932 but was reorganized and reopened by

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

alumnus Jesse Mitchell in 1934. By 1947 the bank had $6 million in assets from over 14,000 depositors, more than 20% of whom were white. This made it the largest black-owned bank in the U.S. The bank faced staffing difficulties because trained white bank workers were unwilling to work for a black bank, but DC only had a single bank training institute, and that institute had a whites-only policy. In 2013 the

Congressional Black Caucus The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is made up of Black members of the United States Congress. Representative Yvette Clarke from New York, the current chairperson, succeeded Steven Horsford from Nevada in 2025. Although most members belong ...

Foundation invested $1 million in certificates of deposit at the bank to spur lending to the African American community. The number of African American banks fell during the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of market decline in economies around the world that occurred from late 2007 to mid-2009.

and Industrial Bank was the last African American-owned bank in Washington D.C. On Friday, November 1, 2019, Industrial Bank acquired substantially all assets of New Jersey's insolvent City National Bank.

References

External links

* 1932 disestablishments in Washington, D.C. 1934 establishments in Washington, D.C. Banks based in Washington, D.C. Black-owned companies of the United States {{US-bank-stub