After the Civil War, returning veterans were eager to get a new start and put their lives back together. Although there was already a bank in uptown Kingston, Cornell and other business leaders felt Rondout, now much busier than the older village of Kingston, needed its own bank. He saw it as a bank where workers could safely save their money and a few could borrow. So, on May 1, 1868 (or shortly thereafter), on the second floor of the Masonic Building down by the creek (at the corner of Broadway and East Strand) the bank opened its doors.
When Rondout Savings Bank opened its doors, it had a little over $61,000 in capital.
The success of Rondout’s industries in moving coal, bluestone, and Rosendale cement to the cities on the Eastern seaboard helped ensure the bank’s success.
In 1890, with assets a little less than $1 million, Rondout Savings Bank moved to a storefront office in the Cornell Steamboat Company Building at the foot of Broadway.
In 1928, with assets at $5 million, the bank moved to its first freestanding building at 26 Broadway.
By the 1960s, the industries that had built Rondout had long since died out and many of its commercial buildings were vacant. An Urban Renewal program forced Rondout Savings Bank to relocate. We stayed close to our roots by moving just up the hill to our present location at 300 Broadway.
Since 1967 when we moved in, we’ve grown from $22 million to over $438 million in assets.
The geographical community that we serve has grown from a village (which long ago was combined into the City of Kingston) to include all of Ulster County and the town/villages of Hyde Park, Rhinebeck and Red Hook located in Dutchess County.