Franklin Bank, Chepachet

Chepachet is a northern Rhode Island village in the town of Glocester (not Gloucester) that once was a busy trading crossroads. Today it is most famous for its annual “Ancients & Horribles Parade.”

The Franklin Bank, founded in February of 1818, was located in the Solomon Owen House (built in 1789) at the corner of Oil Mill Lane and Main Street. The business occupied the southern end of the top floor for its entire existence. Its opening capital was $50,000. Its founding president was Jesse Tourtellot, a descendant of Glocester’s first permanent settler. Many of the bank’s notes bear Benjamin Franklin’s famous phrase, “Time is Money.”

Without a federal charter, it voted to close its doors at the dawn of the national banking era in 1868.

The bank’s former home at 1187 Putnam Pike in Chepachet is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Franklin Bank’s original home in Chepachet as it appears today.