100 stories from the hiking route

1931 – Western Estonian Corporate Bank building completed in Märjamaa

Information

Topic

Village life and society work

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 58.9097824

Longitude: 24.4327723

L-EST 97

x: 6530146.9
y: 524937.1

Location

Penijõe-Aegviidu Hiking route

There were increasingly more people at the start of the 20th century with spare money and a wish to lend it for investment purposes. Märjamaa Loan-Keep Community, the predecessor of Läänemaa’s largest financial institution, was founded in 1911.
At first, Märjamaa Loan-Keep Community operated in a municipal hall. The beginning was difficult – people were more trusting toward the older loan communities situated nearby. Märjamaa community was also short on funds and in order to satisfy all loan requests, they had to lend money themselves. Over time, trust towards the bank increased and money was deposited there more often. In 1919 the bank moved to a room in the Märjamaa Consumers Association.
In 1928, the bank got its own plot, formerly belonging to a post station, where they started building their own facility. In 1930, the lot was finally bought from the state and the bank was incorporated into the Velise Loan-Keep Community. The bank was named Western Estonian Corporate Bank. From 1924, the director of the bank was Hans Littover, under whose guidance it became the largest bank in Läänemaa and made it to the top 3 banks of Northern Estonia. In 1939, a new bank building was planned, the area already allocated, and the project ready, but in 1940, the bank was nationalised. In 1941, the bank director Hans Littover was deported to Siberia.

Sources:
Mesila, T. (assembled by) 2014. Märjamaa 650