Peoples Trust and Savings Company

1902 – merged into Summit Bank, 1983

Founded: The People's Trust and Savings Company was founded in 1902. Among its organisers was Henry A. Beadell, founder of the People's Store, who helped organise "the Peoples Trust Bank," remained a director of it until his death in 1947, and also helped organise the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, the Lincoln National Bank & Trust Company and the Wayne Pump Company. The bank stood at 913–915 Calhoun Street; the 1918 directory gives William P. Breen as president and P. J. McDonald as secretary and treasurer.

What it did: A trust and savings bank — and, by the postwar years, the most architecturally playful bank in Fort Wayne. It appears on the Federal Reserve's list of banks licensed to resume business in June 1933, after the bank holiday. In March 1956 it opened its Southgate Plaza Branch on East Pettit Avenue. About 1960 it built five branches "under the clock"; in 1971 it opened five branch buildings designed by George Nelson in the form of pyramids, promoting "pyramid accounts." Four of the pyramids still stand; the Canterbury pyramid on St. Joe Road was demolished about 2010 and the Georgetown pyramid on East State about 2003. The bank's own landmark was the clock: a McClintock clock installed atop its Calhoun Street building in 1930, removed in 1973 when the building was demolished for the site of One Summit Square, and rededicated on 30 January 2009 atop the Baker Street Station.

Fate: Recession-era troubles forced the bank's merger in 1983: Peoples Trust merged with Indiana Bank — the former Dime Trust & Savings Bank, which had taken the Indiana Bank and Trust name — and the combined entity emerged as Summit Bank. Summit Bank merged into NBD Bank of Gary in 1993; that line passed to Bank One in 2002 and then to Chase.

Sources:

1. Ted Shideler, "Fort Wayne's pyramid banks" (tedshideler.com, 26 April 2026, footnoted) — the 1902 founding, the 1971 pyramids, the clock, the 1983 Summit merger and the NBD–Bank One succession.
2. Pioneers Resting in Historic Lindenwood (1989), Henry A. Beadell sketch — his organising and director roles. R. L. Polk, Fort Wayne city directory, 1918 — Calhoun Street address and officers.
3. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago records (FRASER) — the June 1933 licensed list; G.4.5 release, 19 April 1956 — the Southgate Plaza Branch established 16 March 1956.
4. Indiana Department of Historic Preservation and Archaeology material via ACGSI — the pyramid branches; Waynedale News, 18 February 2009 — the clock's rededication.