Banking on Main Street
Andover National
Bank/Merrimac Fire Insurance,
19-23 Main Street, Circa 1865
While the abundance of
banking institutions in downtown today may seem to
be a recent phenomenon, banking and financial
services have been an Andover industry since the
early 19th century. Built in 1824, this brick
office block, known as the Union Block, served as
office for many of Andover’s early financial
institutions, including the Andover National Bank.
The Merrimac Fire Insurance Company, founded in
1828, kept offices on the second floor and would grow to become the Andover
Companies. The building was demolished in 1887 to
make way for a new Andover National Bank building
(now part of TD BankNorth) on the same site.
Photo: AHS collection
The New Andover National
Bank Building
 Construction
of the new Andover National Bank building in 1890
marked the beginning of a wave of red brick
commercial buildings being built along Main Street
in the early years of the 20th century.
The new Andover National
Bank building was built on the site of the 1824
National Bank. The building served as the home
branch for both the Andover National Bank and the
Andover Savings Bank in side by side first floor
offices until the Savings Bank built its own building
slightly further south down Main Street. The National
Bank then took over the entire first floor.
The Merrimac Mutual Fire
Insurance Company kept offices on the second floor,
and the upper floor was rented out to various small
businesses and fraternal organizations. Photo:
AHS collection #1989.572
Nathaniel Swift House, 61
Main Street, Circa 1880
The Swift house was built
around 1830 on the northwest corner of Chestnut
Street and Main. Nathaniel Swift, Jr., president
and later trustee of the Andover Savings Bank lived in
the house until his death in 1878. In 1924, the
Andover Savings Bank determined to use the property
for their new headquarters. The Swift mansion was
spared from destruction when the bank relocated the
building one plot west down Chestnut Street. (The
elaborate fence surrounding the property was not
relocated.) Sadly, this was only a temporary
reprieve. In 1967, the house was demolished to make
room for additional parking for the bank. Photo:
AHS Collection #1911.75
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