Jamaica Savings Bank

This four-story, narrow building with a limestone front was built from 1897 to 1898 and was originally home to the Jamaica Savings Bank. The Beaux Arts-style building was designed by the form Hough & Duell. The building served as the main branch of Jamaica Savings Bank until the bank merged with Queensboro Savings Bank in 1964; the structure was vacant by the early 1980s. The Jamaica Savings Bank building was listed in the New York and National Registers of Historic Places in 1983. The building was combined with two neighboring buildings to the west and redeveloped in 2015 as a retail complex. Jollibee, a Filipino chain restaurant specializing in fried chicken and peach mango pie, opened in part of the former bank building in early 2021. The historic facade was preserved in the redevelopment. The rest of the complex includes a Burlington Coat Factory and a Target.

Jamaica Savings Bank was founded in April 1866 and opened in July 1866. The bank's trustees met in the Jamaica Town Hall in June 1866 and elected Aaron A. Degrauw as president; he served until 1899. The Village of Jamaica used to be the county seat of Queens County. The Queens County Clerk's Office was next door to the Jamaica Savings Bank building's present location; the bank was housed in the west room of the basement of the county office building (that county office building was replaced by the current Queens Office of the Register building in xxxx; it's also a Clio entry). At first, the bank was only open from 5 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays; on its first day, the bank had 15 accounts at under $3,000 total. The bank had 127 accounts by January 1867 holding deposits of about $34,000.

A local newspaper mentioned in 1870 that the Jamaica Savings Bank was managed by locals who did a great deal of work and took on a lot of responsibility but received no remuneration. The institution's leaders wanted the bank to "benefit the working classes." In 1874, the bank bought and moved into a wood frame building on the lot next door to the county's lot. Banking was done on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The bank's accountholders topped 1,000 by the late 1870s with deposits of over one million dollars by the early 1890s.

The bank outgrew its building and wanted to operate out of a more fireproof structure, so the wood frame building was moved to the rear of the lot and the present building was constructed. William C. Hough and Edgar Duell Jr. were the architects who designed the new bank building. The cornerstone was laid on September 20th 1897. In late August 1898, the new bank building opened. The bank's address in the old numbering system was 360 Fulton Street.The bank started being open every business day from 9 am to 4 pm Mondays to Fridays and 9 am to noon on Saturdays. The second president of Jamaica Savings Bank was John H. Sutphin, from 1899 to 1907; next was William A. Warnock. Warnock was a local man, from Flushing, who attended Union Hall Academy in Jamaica and Bryant, Stratton, & Clark's Business College in Brooklyn. The bank's deposits by January 1916 numbered over 11,000, totaling near $5.5 million. Warnock died unexpectedly while in Florida in January 1917. He was succeeded as president by attorney and businessman William Wallace Gillen. Gillen passed away of pneumonia at his home in Jamaica in January 1920.

The 24,000-square foot building last sold in 2013. The 30 by 200-foot structure was offered for sale with the vacant, ten-story building next door to the east, 160-16 Jamaica Avenue (built circa 1927). Both buildings and the next building to the west, 160-08 (a vacant, three-story structure), were being redeveloped in 2015 into one four-story retail complex, scheduled to open in 2017. The 10-story building was being shortened to four stories, and the three-story building was getting a new top floor. Burlington Coat Factory planned to occupy 70,000 square feet of the 150,000-square-foot development, across parts of all three buildings. All three buildings were to be interconnected with seamless floor plates. The historic facade of the Jamaica Savings Bank building was preserved.

Anonymous. "The meeting of the trustees..." Jamaica Farmer (Jamaica. NY) June 12th 1866. 6-6.

Anonymous. "Locals." Jamaica Farmer (Jamaica. NY) March 30th 1871. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Banker Warnock Dead." Evening World (New York) February 3rd 1917. Final ed, 4-4.

Anonymous. "William Wallace Gillen." The sun (New York) January 3rd 1920. , Obituaries sec, 9-9.

Frandsen, Bradley. NRHP Nomination of Jamaica Savings Bank, Queens County, N.Y. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1983.

Jamaica Avenue. Signage for Jollibee is up at 161-02 Jamaica Ave., Facebook: Jamaica Avenue page. December 18th 2020. Accessed June 6th 2022. https://www.facebook.com/JamaicaCenterBID/posts/signage-for-jollibee-is-up-at-161-02-jamaica-avenue-a-filipino-multinational-cha/4184871338192798/.

Jamaica Savings Bank. "Jamaica Savings Bank." Jamaica Farmer (Jamaica NY) September 15th 1870. Advertisements sec, 6-6.

LoopNet. 161-02 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432, LoopNet: Retail for Sale. June 12th 2014. Accessed June 6th 2022. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18196487/161-02-JAMAICA-AVENUE-Jamaica-NY/.

Manning, James Hilton. Savings Bank Assn. of the State of N.Y. Century of American Savings Banks. Volume New York. New York, NY. B. F. Buck and Company, 1917.

Paulson, Kirsten E. Burlington Coat Factory to Open in Jamaica, QNS. August 13th 2015. Accessed June 7th 2022. https://qns.com/2015/08/burlington-coat-factory-to-open-in-jamaica/.

Weiss, Lois. Burlington Opening Massive Retail Store Near Jamaica Avenue, New York Post. August 11th 2015. Accessed June 7th 2022. https://nypost.com/2015/08/11/burlington-opening-massive-retail-store-near-jamaica-avenue/.

Wilson, Reid. Four-Story Retail Redevelopment Underway at 160-16 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica Center, New York YIMBY. August 13th 2015. Accessed June 7th 2022. https://newyorkyimby.com/2015/08/four-story-retail-redevelopment-underway-at-160-16-jamaica-avenue-jamaica-center.html.