6. Commuter Banking at Borough Hall
Most straphangers who pass through the Brooklyn Borough Hall subway station barely notice the two darkened windows that are set within the blue tiling on the upper level of the station. But look carefully and you will see the faded words “COMMUTER BANKING” at the top. On the lower part of the window, the hours are still visible: “MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY 8 A.M. TO 6 P.M.” as well as a small yellowed button that would have summoned the teller.
These commuter banking windows, made by Diebold Incorporated out in Ohio, were once run by the Brooklyn Savings Bank, at least through the late 1960s and likely through the 1980s until the bank closed. The Brooklyn Savings Bank was founded in 1827, operating in multiple headquarters over time in Brooklyn Heights. Its most architecturally notable and longest standing headquarters was at Clinton and Pierrepoint Streets, designed in a Neoclassical revival style around the time of the World’s Colombian Exhibition in Chicago. The granite for the building was quarried from Maine.
The Brooklyn Savings Bank would be located here from 1894 to 1961, when it moved to Montague and Fulton Streets. Based on the design and architecture of the banking windows and surrounding tiling, it is likely that the subterranean initiative was installed around the same time the bank moved to its new location in the new “Brooklyn Civic Center” area.