Old Colony Trust Co.

Old Colony Trust Associates was formed in 1928 under the auspices of the Old Colony Trust Company for the purpose of purchasing a broad range of notes, bonds, and shares of financial institutions and businesses. The following year, First National Bank of Boston merged with Old Colony Trust Company. This merger made First National Bank the 11th largest bank in the country and the largest bank in Boston.

The bank’s roots extend back to 1784, just one year after a fledgling United States achieved its independence from Great Britain. A group of prominent Boston businessmen founded Massachusetts Bank on July 5, 1784, declaring that, “It would be beneficial to the public in general, and to all persons engaged in trade, to have a bank established in this state.” The founders of the bank included men known for their public service and wealth, including James Bowdoin, the bank’s first president, and John Hancock, Governor of the Commonwealth, who signed the bank’s charter with the same flourish as he did the Declaration of Independence.

The bank’s first home was on the site of the present-day Park Street Church, across the street from Boston Common. Like other banks of the time, the bank printed its own currency. The only holiday was Commencement Day at Harvard College.

The Depression took its toll on the bank, as on the rest of the nation, although it managed to stay strong. The bank took a lead role in the 1930s as a lender to the film industry in California, in the process becoming the first bank in the country to make term loans. Successive names have followed; today it is called BankBoston.