Our Roots Run Deep
On May 13th, 1867, a group of influential residents of Abington Township met at the Phoenix Hotel, then located at the southwest corner of Old York Road and West Avenue in Jenkintown. At this meeting, the first building and loan association in Jenkintown was founded. The name Abington Building Association was decided upon because Jenkintown was a part of Abington Township at that time. It was not until 1874 that Jenkintown became a borough.
Justice of the Peace Henry M. Stewart was the first President of the Association. Charles Mather, a local realtor, was the first Secretary. The original directors were Joseph A. Shoemaker, a butcher; Samuel Keightly, caretaker of the Merit Estate; Benjamin W. Fleck, a well-known tinsmith and merchant; Charles Harper, proprietor of a general store on the corner of York and West Avenues; John Fithian, a painting contractor; and William Eliott, a carpenter and builder.
The most noteworthy member, however, was the Bank’s 1st Treasurer, Abel Satterthwaite. Mr. Satterthwaite was born on April 5th, 1822 to Susannah Claypoole and Abel Satterthwaite. He was an Abington Meeting Quaker. Abel’s maternal grandmother (Susannah’s mother) was Elizabeth Griscom Ross Claypoole, who is more commonly known as Betsy Ross, the lady who sewed the first American Flag!
In 1827 Betsy Ross moved to Abington to live with her daughter Susannah and her family on the Satterthwaite property (Abel’s father, Abel Sr. built their family home here in 1815) on Fox Chase Road. The house still stands today.
The Association received its first charter from the Court of Common Pleas of Montgomery County on November 14th, 1870, and was rechartered on March 15th, 1898, by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. At that point in time, assets of the Association totaled $43,349.91. Eight years later, in the Association’s thirty-ninth Annual Statement, Treasurer Howard Fleck reported assets of $140,383.99.
More recently, we successfully completed our reorganization from a mutual savings bank to a stock savings bank in the mutual holding company form on December 16th, 2004 and our parent company, Abington Bancorp, Inc., was listed on the NASDAQ National Market System under the symbol ABBC. On April 4th, 2005, Abington Bancorp, Inc. rang the opening bell on NASDAQ’s Stock Market in Times Square.
In 2006, Abington Bancorp, Inc. was recognized in U.S. Banker’s annual performance ranking of the top 200 publicly-traded community banks, based on three-year average return on equity. On June 30th, 2006, ABBC was added to the Russell 3000 Index’s annual reconstitution of the top 3,000 U.S. public companies with the highest market capitalization.
Abington Bank is nineteen branches strong and growing. As the #1 Community Bank, we continue to take great pride in the personal service and faster decision-making that has become synonymous with Abington Bank.
The future of the Bank is in the combined efforts of its employees, officers and directors. Together, we are dedicated to providing our customers with a degree of excellence in service that confirms our title as the #1 Community Bank.
Abington Bank – Proudly serving the community since 1867