Fidelity Trust Company

Fidelity Trust Company was a bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1866 as Fidelity Insurance, Trust, & Safe Deposit Company, the bank was later renamed Fidelity Trust Company, Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company, The Fidelity Bank, and Fidelity Bank, National Association. It was absorbed in 1988 in the biggest U.S. bank merger up to that point, and is today part of Wells Fargo.

It was founded in 1866 by financier Clarence H. Clark (1833–1906) and several partners as the Fidelity Insurance, Trust, & Safe Deposit Company with initial capital of $250,000. Besides selling insurance and transacting trust business, the company was the second U.S. bank to offer safe deposit services. The bank was located at Broad and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia.

Clark served as the bank's first president, followed by Nathaniel Borradaile Browne, Stephen Caldwell, John B. Gest (1824–1907), Rudolph Ellis (1837-1915, served as FTC president 1900–1915), and William P. Gest (1861-1939, served 1919(?)–1926).

Renamed the Fidelity Trust Company in 1886, it had by 1921 achieved "a foremost place among the trust companies of the country." It was reported to hold more than $255 million in trust funds and $829 million in corporate trusts.

In the early years of the 20th century, Fidelity underwrote International Mercantile Marine, the parent company of the White Star Line. The 1912 sinking of RMS Titanic caused large losses at Fidelity and forced layoffs. One of the Titanic survivors, Thomas D.M. Cardeza, was a grandson of Fidelity co-founder Thomas Drake and would go on to be a director of the company from 1922-51.

In 1926, the bank merged with the Philadelphia Trust Company, established in 1869, to become the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company.

In 1928, the bank erected a 29-story headquarters building at 123-151 South Broad Street in Philadelphia. Called the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company Building, it is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This building portrayed the headquarters of Duke & Duke in the film Trading Places.

...
Wikipedia