Hamilton’s First Bank gets funds to help it reopen as museum

PHILADELPHIA – Pennsylvania’s governor has announced an $8 million grant to help reopen the First Bank of the United States as a museum.

Gov. Tom Wolf was at the First Bank in Philadelphia on Friday to announce the funding to restore the bank founded by Alexander Hamilton in the 1790s.

Wolf says the project “will help to restore Philadelphia’s rightful place in the remarkable Hamilton story that has captured the nation’s curiosity.”

The building, not far from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, has been closed to the public for years and is owned by the National Park Service.

The total cost is expected to reach about $26 million. Other funding is coming from the park service and private donors.

The First Bank was chartered in 1791 as the nation’s first central bank.