The old Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. earned a reputation as a no-nonsense, independent, conservative bank, and for all the years, this place kept me out of red ink.
Its trust department managed the unseen, dusty but abundantly green fortunes of ancient Baltimore. The Mercantile vaults held silver heirlooms for families off to Bar Harbor in the summer.
H. Furlong Baldwin headed the Mercantile for decades and was a Baltimore business legend. His death, at age 92 on Dec. 9, is a reminder of the way his institution conducted business. They did it their way.
He was known as “Baldy” and — to me — he was an unseen presence at the banking house he ran. The Hopkins Place office was on West Baltimore Street, just facing the old Morris A. Mechanic Theatre. Both institutions are now gone, the Mechanic demolished and an unproductive vacant lot in the heart of downtown Baltimore, while the Mercantile was sold to PNC, a Pittsburgh-based bank in 2007.
I had a lowly checking account and not much else. The passing of its big boss marks a time when local corporations were proud to be local and run by real people who might actually give you the benefit of the doubt. They knew your name and you knew theirs. They were there to help and they did.