Lakeside Bank celebrates 40 years of business
By Julie Sammarco
Lakeside
Bank has seen eight U.S presidents serve in office, the first Super Bowl,
Chicago’s first female and African-American Mayors, as well as two Mayors
Daley. Bell-bottom pants have come in and out of style—twice—and it has
seen the first Twix candy bars hit shelves nationwide. That all means this
bank has been around for 40 years as of 2006.
To observe 40 full years of business, Lakeside Bank held its 41st annual Business Forecast Luncheon recently at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. With the theme Marking 40 Years, Envisioning the Future, the event attracted 420 of the bank’s friends and customers to hear keynote speaker Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at LaSalle Bank.
Raymond J. Spaeth II, Lakeside Bank president, honored longtime bank officers during the celebration. "Of Lakeside’s 41 officers, 31 have been with Lakeside for ten or more years, while 17 have been with the bank for 20 or more years," Spaeth noted.
The bank’s multilingual staff prides itself on knowing Lakeside’s clients and community—and being able to communicate effectively with them. “The staff really helped my mom because she doesn’t speak English, and there were people there who could speak with her in Chinese,” said Sharon Moy, a Lakeside Bank patron whose mother has banked there for 20 years.
Starting out on the South Side of Chicago in 1966, Lakeside Bank has since expanded into five other city neighborhoods.
Raymond J. Spaeth Sr. and R.R Donnelley & Sons began forming Lakeside Bank in 1965. The first branch was located at 2268 S. Parkway Dr. (later named Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) in 1966. The bank's first president was John R. Montgomery III.
Lakeside was the first Chicago bank to offer minimum balance checking. “This was an innovative step to take because, not only did it meet consumers’ needs by helping reduce the possibility of fees brought on by things like excessive transactions, it also met typical bank goals of growing deposits,” said Victor Monroy, a vice president at keynote speaker Tannenbaum's LaSalle Bank. Five years later, in 1971, the bank began reaching out to the community through financing by investing in Chinatown’s Golden Country Oriental food supply and a 32-acre Santa Fe Railroad development.
Through such ventures, "we’ve played a significant role in the emergence of the South Side,” said the younger Spaeth, who became the bank's second president in 1995.
In 1982, Lakeside became the first commercial bank to open in Chinatown. Lakeside also had the first ATMs at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Mercy Hospital, and Michael Reese Hospital.
In 1993 the bank was taken over by Montgomery, the younger Spaeth, and Victor J. Cacciatore. The new leadership began an expansion plan and opened new locations in several areas of the city. Among them were branches at the Board of Trade and the North and South Loop.
Today, Lakeside offers the latest technologies such as electronic e-Link banking and invests all its deposits in ventures that serve local communities.
The younger Spaeth, who has been with Lakeside since its conception 40 years ago, is connected personally to several community groups. He has been a member and even a director of some 17 community organizations since the 1970s and currently is involved in organizations including the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, the Near South Planning Board, Chicago's Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, and the Valentine Boys & Girls Club.
Lakeside Bank now runs six branches serving this community: Near North (55 W. Wacker Dr.), Board of Trade (141 W. Jackson St.), South Loop (2141 S. Indiana Ave.), Chinatown (2200 S. Archer Ave.), Near West (1055 W. Roosevelt Rd.), and Lakeview/Lincoln Park (2800 N. Ashland Ave.).
Lakeside is celebrating Money Smart Week, as designated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, through Saturday, May 5.
Visit any of Lakeside's locations for a chance to guess how many pennies are in a jar. The person closest to the actual number in the jar will win a $100 savings bond. There will be one winner per branch location.
On Saturday, May 5, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., the bank will offer a workshop, The Homebuying Process, at the 1055 W. Roosevelt Rd. branch. Mortgage loan consultants from the bank will explain, in both English and Spanish, the mortgage process, mortgage programs, and State resources for affordable housing.
