Dorchester Illustration no. 2396 Blue Hill Bank and Blue Hill National Bank
Blue Hill Bank and Blue Hill National Bank of Dorchester
The Dorchester and Milton Bank opened in 1832. In 1850 it suffered a robbery, losing $32,000 and the printing plates for their bank notes. In 1851 the name of the bank was changed to Blue Hill Bank. The bank obtained a national charter on October 3, 1864, with the new name of Blue Hill National Bank of Dorchester.
In 1872, the Bank moved to the brick building shown in today’s illustration, located at the corner of Washington and Richmond Streets, a block north of the early bank building. E.J. Bispham became president and S.J. Willis cashier in 1876. The name was changed to The Blue Hill National Bank of Milton in 1882, when it was moved to Associates Building, Milton . That year, the building at the corner of Richmond Street was sold to the City of Boston. Station 11 of the Police Department was for a long while located here, and the Lower Mills branch of the Boston Public Library operated from this building for many years.
The building is now a private residence.
The check in the illustration was written November 4, 1876, and was signed by George Vose, the treasurer. A 2-cent Internal Revenue stamp was affixed to the upper right corner. During the Civil War the United States created the Internal Revenue Service to raise money for war expenses. The Internal Revenue Service imposed taxes on mortgages, bonds, contracts, bank checks and other documents. The initial bank check tax was instituted in 1816 and required a 2-cent tax on each bank check above the amount of $20.
During the Civil War years the National Banking Acts included provisions to limit the issuance of banknotes to federally-chartered banks. The U.S. Treasury began to issue circulating notes, and by the 1880s the Treasury issued large quantities of paper currency, eventually eliminating the use of state banknotes and national banknotes in the period from 1870 to 1900.