Uptown National Bank (Bridgeview Bank)

Although our accounts at Chase and Bank of America are far more convenient with their hundreds of ATM locations, we opened our business accounts at Bridgeview Bank to support a small local bank and to have an excuse to do business in a fabulous vintage Uptown building (which recently starred in Johnny Depp's movie Public Enemies). I even rented my first safety deposit box from them! I love Bridgeview, because they always recognize us when we're there; the service is very, very personal.

The bank has undergone a number of name changes over the years, known as Sheridan Trust to some generations, and Uptown National to others. Here is an old advertisement from when the Uptown Safe Deposit Company was affiliated with the bank. The door to the vault looks the same today.

1920s Advertisement for the Sheridan Trust Bank — Oldest and Largest in Uptown

Broadway, circa 1940

Thanks to Rick D. for sending this one in! Broadway Ave. in Uptown looking north toward Lawrence. You can see the Uptown National Bank in the background, as well as a row of buildings that existed where the bank's parking lot now stands.

Do you know the woman in the photo? Let us know!

Broadway Lawrence Racine, 1920

This image kind of reminds me of waiting for election results during the last aldermanic race!

Here we see the results of some election being projected onto the front of the Sheridan Trust Savings Bank (before it moved across the street into what is now the Bridgeview Bank building).


Original caption: View of a crowd at North Broadway and West Lawrence Avenue in the Uptown community area of Chicago, Illinois, watching election returns on the night of Nov. 4, 1920. The returns are projected on a large screen stretched above the crowd. DN-0009882, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society, Library of Congress

Sheridan Trust Lobby

Here's an interior scene of the lobby of the Sheridan Trust Bank when it was located in what is now the Borders Building. For an image of the exterior, go to the Cafe Press shop.