The former Harlem State Bank at 200 Elgin Ave. in Forest Park is now the site of Forest Park Bank.
The Harlem State Bank incorporated in 1904 in the village, with stockholders primarily from Harlem, Oak Park and River Forest. The early stockholders included Fredrick Lang, William Haase, William Rieger, Frank Troost, L. H. Hollerman, William Einfeld, C.E. Bollis, Wallis Henrric and E. A. Cummings.
All of Forest Park’s banks closed during the Great Depression of the 1930s and this bank was reopened in 1943 when Forest Park National Bank was founded. When the bank opened, they hired the familiar and reliable Otto C. Roeder as an assistant cashier. He was once the cashier at Harlem State Bank.
