Alex Brown history

In 1810 he established a Liverpool branch of the business under his eldest son, William (later Sir William Brown). The English office, through which American remittances, credit instruments, and securities flowed, enabled the firm to take a large role in international trade and finance.

To further facilitate the banking business, the firm built a shipping fleet and helped underwrite the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in 1827.

The merchant and banker Alexander Brown (1764-1834) became one of America's first millionaires.

Upon the death of George S. Brown in 1890, his son Alexander Brown expanded the company’s interests once again, most notably by pioneering the use of public utility bonds as investment securities.

Constructed in 1901, just after the company’s centennial, the building represents the firm’s and, by association, Baltimore’s significance in American finance in the nineteenth century.

The current building, including the stylistically and materially “identical” Beecher, Friz and Gregg addition of 1905-7, may be seen as an idealized view of the institution’s past, reflecting turn-of-the 20th century notions of corporate identity and gentility.

ABR was established in 1972 to originate real estate investments for the partners and clients of Alex.

Brown Kleinwort Benson Realty Advisors Corporation (ABKB). ABKB subsequently acquired the assets of FIA Associates, Inc. and became the largest real estate advisor to public pension funds in the United States ABKB was sold to LaSalle Partners, Inc. in 1994.