Manuscript Group 338 REAL ESTATE TRUST COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA RECORDS 1861-1963
7 cubic feet
Incorporated in 1876, the Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia (RETCO) was
a leading regional commercial bank that provided security for property titles,
trusts, and mortgages for its customers. It also served as trustee for railroads,
transit, mining, and manufacturing companies throughout Pennsylvania. As a key
member of the Philadelphia business community, the RETCO underwent many changes
but always maintained its close ties to the city's financial and political elite.
In his book on the Houston and Woodward families of the Philadelphia suburb of
Chestnut Hill, David R. Contosa states that one of the founders of the RETCO was
Charles Wolcott Henry (1852-1903), the nephew of one-time Philadelphia mayor Alexander
Henry. More crucial, however, to the RETCO's ascendancy in the Commonwealth was
Henry's brother-in-law, Samuel Frederic Houston. The son of a Pennsylvania Railroad
executive, Houston joined the RETCO board of directors in 1896, became vice president
in 1903, president in 1928 and chairman of the board from 1943 until 1952. In
1906, according to Contosa, the firm was rocked by scandal when a RETCO executive
committed suicide after embezzling money from the company. This episode caused
Houston and the RETCO to become much more cautious in their subsequent financial
dealings. Despite this incident, the RETCO prospered under Houston's leadership.
It had its own building in Center City Philadelphia at Broad and Chestnut Streets
and listed among its clients many of the more affluent residents of the Delaware
Valley.
The main batch of RETCO records, the Beneficiary Document Files, cover the time
period from 1861 through 1963. They consist mainly of routine business correspondence
with company beneficiaries or customers, who were located throughout the Mid-Atlantic
region. Also included are mortgages, real estate papers, and agreements. Despite
the connection between the RETCO and the Houston family, there are no files documenting
the holdings of the family in this collection. Also included is one box containing
a letter pressbook of the Fidelity Trust and Safe Deposit Company, spanning the
dates December 28, 1881 to November 10, 1882. The pressbook contains outgoing
company correspondence, with some of the letters including information regarding
the client's marital status and the dates that wills, deeds, and other estate
documents were filed. It is arranged chronologically, and an alphabetical index
is included. In addition to listing the name of the individual and the page number,
the index frequently has "decd." written after entries. An additional box contains
a bound volume of the the minutes of the German American Title and Trust Company
Stockholders, 1897-1918. Included in the ledger book are lists of company board
of directors from 1901 to 1918.
Among the estate papers are those of:
George H. Earle, Jr., father of Pennsylvania governor George H. Earle (1935-1939)