Commercial Trust Company records, 1921-1974
Part of collection: Bank of Delaware records (1719)
Dates
- Creation: 1921-1974
Historical Note
Commercial Trust Company (Wimington, 1921-1974) was incorporated in Delaware in 1921 as a small Wilmington-based trust and loan company. Its primary business was in small business loans and loans for home improvement, repair, and construction. One company president, Louis Rosenblatt (1887-1944), was personally involved in advancing the economic growth of Wilmington in ways that were congruous with this primary mission. Rosenblatt was a co-founder of the Home Building and Loan Association, and he came to the Commercial Trust Company after having served as president of Mutual Savings and Loan.
Over the years, the Commercial Trust Company expanded into full retail banking services with a savings and depository department, a Christmas Club Plan, and foreign currency exchange. Even with all these additional services, it remained a small neighborhood bank until it merged into the Bank of Delaware on April 1, 1974.
Scope and Contents
Extant records of the Commercial Trust Company span its entire history from 1921 to 1974 and include administrative/corporate records and financial records. The financial records contain journals dating from 1921 to 1959 and general ledgers dating from 1930 to 1958, in addition to standard accounting records. The general ledgers include "account" records: savings ledgers, bad debt records, and liability ledgers. The savings ledgers dating from 1923 to 1931 and a paid vacation and Christmas Club ledger records the savings activities of middle-income families in Wilmington. The bad debt records dating from 1930 to 1933 listing persons who defaulted on loans in the early years of the Depression. The liability ledgers date from 1923 to 1935 record loan payments made into the same period.
Extent
From the Collection: 123 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Additional Description
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.
Repository Details
Repository Details
Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository
