Measure, Tape
Object number2009.117.1
Manufacturer
Swinston Company
OriginPittsburgh, PA
Mediumiron; cotton
Credit LineGift of Richard O. Price
DescriptionDollar Savings Bank tape measure.Dimensions0.5 x 1.375 in. (1.3 x 3.5 cm)InscriptionsBlue printed text on obverse: "Chartered 1855 / 340 Fourth Avenue"; and on reverse, around edges, "THE ONLY MUTUAL SAVINGS BANK IN PITTSBURGH" and in center, "THE / DOLLAR SAVINGS BANK / 309 Smithfield Street".
Cloth pull tape has printed measurements in inches.
MarksText on edge "SWINSTON CO. PGH, PA. PAT 06(?),7,549(?),095".
Historical NotesCloth measuring tape promoting Dollar Savings Bank. Pittsburgh Dollar Savings Institution opened in 1855, and renamed Dollar Savings Bank three years later. In March 1871, the elaborate main building on Fourth Avenue was opened to the public and remains there today. Even during the Great Depression, the bank was stable and never closed its doors. Dollar Savings Bank was the first bank in Pennsylvania to have an electronic online bank accounting system (1964). In 1976, it became the second in the nation--not to mention the first again in the state--to have a pay-by-phone bill payment system; that was the same year the Fourth Avenue building was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. In 1984, the organization was renamed Dollar Bank.
Related institution
Dollar Bank
On View
Not on view
c. 1917
c. 1917
1930-1939
William Carter Company
1950s
Master Rule Manufacturing Company, Inc.