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Location: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10  

111 E. Busse - Bank One Building

This building may not look particularly historic, but there is more to it than meets the eye. This was the third home of the Mount Prospect State Bank which was one of the most influential businesses in the development of Mount Prospect. The State Bank was formed in 1911 and was in a small building on the corner of Emerson and Busse, where the Senior Center is today. William Busse, the most influential person in the development of your community, founded the bank and used it as the financial backbone of his developments. Many of the homes that you live in today may have been financed by this business.

The Mount Prospect State Bank started out in the tiny corner building and continued to serve the community from this modest location through WWI. Then, in 1928 at the height of the boom of the 1920s, the bank moved to a larger building a block north at 2 W. Busse. This building was originally the home of Busse Buick, another business started by William Busse. In this location the bank weathered the Great Depression of the 1930s and was one of very few financial institutions to go through the depression with uninterrupted service.

During this time many banks went out of business. In 1933, shortly after his inauguration, President F. D. Roosevelt ordered all banks in America to close and work out their books. The Mount Prospect State Bank closed its doors for the first time. However, it was one of the first Banks in Illinois to reopen in a time when only about ten percent of the areas banks ever reopened. The bank then worked through the second World War. Following W.W.II, Mount Prospect went into its largest building boom ever and the State bank was here to finance it. Between 1950 and 1960 Mount Prospect' s population grew almost 500%.

In 1967 the Mount Prospect State Bank moved again. They built the building that is now the Mount Prospect Village Hall. They continued to lend money and act as the community's largest saving bank through the suburbanization of the 1960s. In 1975 they moved again to the building in front of you. There, they eventually merged with other banks and first became the First Chicago Bank and then later BankOne, which is what you see today.