Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain

By 22 January 1888 a bill presented to the House of Delegates calling for the incorporation of the Savings Bank of the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers, had passed into law. This institution was the first bank chartered in the United States to be owned and managed by African Americans. It did not begin operations until 1889, however, thus failing to secure the title as the first black-owned bank in the U.S., a distinction belonging to the Capitol Savings Bank of Washington, D.C., which opened its doors in 1888.

William Washington Browne, an ex-slave from Georgia, started the Grand Fountain, United Order of True Reformers as a temperance organization. Browne traveled to Richmond in 1875, determined to spread his message and help the existing Virginia chapter. In 1880, members asked him to lead the association for the State of Virginia. He immediately implemented changes in order to include all African Americans in the order, not just the members of the middle class who then constituted a majority of the group's membership.

Evidence suggests that he used temperance as a means to build support for a black-owned financial institution. Browne ran the bank out of his own house for three years before moving to 604–608 North Second Street. One of his proudest moments occurred during the Panic of 1893, when his institution was the only bank in Richmond to remain open on a normal operating basis. Despite Browne's death in 1897, the True Reformers continued to add branches and business enterprises. Unfortunately, flush times ended, and the bank closed its doors in 1910.