ABSTRACT
EARLY in January, 1817, the second Bank of the United States opened for business in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia. The first Bank of the United States had occupied this building when it had ceased functioning as a national bank six years before. It was appropriate that the second Bank should begin at the old stand for, although the new Bank was considerably larger, its organization was substantially similar to that of its predecessor. And it was an augury of the Bank's future financial power that in 1821 it should move from the modest quarters where the old Bank had quietly performed its functions to a sumptuous temple built for its occupancy and designed by William Strickland on the lines of the Parthenon in Athens.
