Finance History | JPMorgan Chase — A Water Charter at 40 Wall

People treat JPMorgan Chase as J. Pierpont Morgan's house at 23 Wall.

The oldest surviving book is a water company.

On 2 April 1799 the New York legislature chartered the Manhattan Company to supply pure and wholesome water after yellow-fever summers.

A surplus-capital clause let the directors open other businesses.

On 1 September 1799 the Bank of the Manhattan Company opened in a house at 40 Wall Street.

The office broke the Federalist hold of the Bank of New York and the New York branch of the Bank of the United States.

The company sold the waterworks to the city in 1808 and kept the bank.

Chase National, founded in 1877, merged with Manhattan in 1955 and kept the 1799 charter.

Chemical Bank, opened in 1824 from a paint-and-dye manufacturer at 216 Broadway, later bought Chase and kept Chemical's listed stock record.

J.P. Morgan and Co. joined that holding company in 2000.

The listed parent still occupies the Park Avenue lot Chemical used.

40 Wall Street remains the address the water bank first rented.

Photo: 270 Park Avenue, the Chemical and later JPMorgan Chase headquarters site, via Wikimedia Commons.