UNION BUILDING. 



A meeting of subscribers to the building to be erected on Union 

 street, was held on Tuesday evening, M?y 31, 1808 ; votes were passed 

 to purchase of Mr. John Watson, his land and buildings on the western 

 side of Union street, for the sum of five thousand dollars, and also to 

 apply to the Legislature for an Act of Incorporation. The act having 

 passed the two branches of the Legislature, received the approval of 

 the Governor, June 10, 1808. The meeting for accepting the Act and 

 for organization was held June 17, 1808. The Act of Incorporation 

 limited the number of shares to one hundred, and the capital to 

 $40,000. 



The By-laws direct that the stock be divided into forty shares ; 

 that the annual meeting be held on the second Tuesday in June. The 

 following officers were chosen : 



Directors, Benjamin Pickman, President; Gamaliel Hodges, Samuel 

 Archer, 3d, Thomas M. Woodbridge, Robert Stone, jr. Clerk, John 

 Moriarty. Treasurer, James C. King. 



Gamaliel Hodges, Thomas M. Woodbridge and W. B. Parker, were 

 appointed the superintending committee of construction. 



The Union Building at its erection, had two shops on Essex street 

 and one on Union street, also three tenements for dwellings, on Union 

 street. The eastern shop on Essex street was soon occupied by 

 Thomas M. Vinson, for the sale of Dry Goods. Mr. V. came to Salem 

 a few years previous and taught a school in the Vestry of the South 

 Church, on Cambridge street. He entered the army in 1812 ; was 

 Major of the 34th Regiment in 1813, and Lieutenant-Colonel in 1814, and 

 when the army was reduced in 1815, received an honorable discharge. 

 He then accepted an appointment in the Custom House, Boston, which 

 he held many years. He was a respectable man and a good officer. 



Goodhue & Warner, both from Ipswich, had a grocery in the south- 

 ern shop, on Union street. They soon removed to Franklin Building. 

 William Stearns occupied the eastern shop in the autumn of 1816, and 

 for several subsequent years as a drug and grocery store. During his 

 occupancy that and the southern store were united. 



The Merchants Bank was instituted in 1811, and on the 29th of 

 August of that year, leased the western store for their banking room, 

 for a period of twenty years, and continued until the removal to 

 Bowker's Building. The first officers were Benjamin W. Crownin- 

 shield, President; John Saunders, Cashier; John White Treadwell, 

 Principal Clerk; Joseph Story, Joseph Winn, Jonathan Neal, James 

 Devereux, Stephen White, John Dodge, jr., Joseph Ropes and Robert 

 Stone, jr., Directors. The Essex and Salem, the only banks then in 

 Salem, were under the control of the Federalists, and party spirit 



