Just a few months after British troops left American soil, the first bank opened in the United States. The Bank of New York opened with a capitalization of $500,000.

On this day, June 9th, in 1784, The Bank of New York was founded at the Walton House in Lower Manhattan.

Alexander Hamilton, one of the American Founding Fathers, established the global banking company and wrote the bank’s constitution. It continued to exist for over two centuries until it merged with the Mellon Financial Corporation in July 2007. It is now heralded by the name of The Bank of New York Mellon or BNY Mellon.