The Ardmore building which is now the location of DePaul’s Table, was built in the 1890s for the Merion Title and Trust Company, a bank that failed in 1931. Over the course of the building’s one-hundred-twenty-something year history, four other businesses have occupied that space.
Inquirer – September 8, 1891 – Merion Title and Trust Purchased the land on Lancaster Avenue between Anderson Avenue and Railroad Avenue. The address for the Bank and its successors at this location will be 7 East Lancaster Avenue
Postcard, from late “teens” or early 1920s. On the reverse side, it says “Published by T.B. Smith,” which was the name of the Rexall Drug Store, located across the street at Lancaster and Cricket Avenues.
Harrisburg Evening News – October 28, 1931. When the Stock Market crashed in 1929, there were three banks headquartered in Ardmore. By the time Merion Title and Trust closed, the other two banks – Ardmore National Bank and Counties Trust Company, had also failed.
Morning Call – March 29, 1933 – Two officers of the Failed Merion Title and Trust Company were indicted, and later convicted and jailed for embezzelement.
According to the Lower Merion Historical Society – At the request of the Pennsylvania Banking Department, which felt a bank was important to the business community in Ardmore, the First Pennsylvania Bank in Philadelphia, then known as the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities Bank and Trust Company, took over operations of the Merion Title and Trust Company in 1932
CoreStates Bank Acquired First Pennsylvania in 1989, and the following year they closed this branch.
In 2018, Primavera gave way to The Bercy – described by the Inquirer as “a polished brasserie experience. The Bercy got great reviews, and became an instant “in-spot,” but couldn’t survive Covid.
Since June of 2021, 7 East Lancaster Avenue has been occupied by DePaul’s Table, “a modern Italian Steakhouse,” where you can order a 48oz, 28-Day Dry-Aged bone-in Tomahawk Ribeye, with a trio of sauces and country mashed potatoes – for $140.
And you can wash it down with a glass of Duckhorn, Napa Valley Merlo, for $25.
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