Ramsey County History – Fall 1995: “After 108 Years, a Transformation: Norwest Bank St. Paul and Its Heritage of More Than a Century”

After 108 Years, a Transformation: Norwest Bank St. Paul and Its Heritage of More Than a Century

Author: James B. Bell

The Scandinavian-American Bank was chartered in June 1887. It eventually became Norwest Bank, one of the state’s biggest. The author, skilled at institutional history, untangles the changing string of names and mergers. He takes us through the farm crisis of the 1920s and the national economic crisis of the 1930s. Along the way many of the great names in St. Paul business history appear—Shepard, Lilly, Gordon, Griggs, and others. The story brings events up to 1995.

PDF of Bell article