In the midst of the Great Depression, it appeared the Union Guardian Trust Company would default and that would lead to a rush on Michigan’s banks. After meeting with banking officials, Governor William A. Comstock declared a two-week banking holiday. The holiday was extended and Michigan’s banks were still closed when President Roosevelt declared an indefinite federal bank holiday in March.
Gov. William Comstock’s Proclamation of a Bank Holiday
Whereas in view of the acute financial emergency now existing in the city of Detroit and throughout the state of Michigan, I deem it necessary in the public interest and for the preservation of public peace, health and safety, and for the equal safeguarding without preference of the rights of all depositors in the banks and trust companies of this state and at the request of the Michigan Bankers Association and the Detroit Clearing House and after consultation with the banking authorities, both national and state, with representatives of the United States Treasury Department, the Banking Department of the State of Michigan, and Federal Reserve Bank, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and with the United States Department of Commerce, I hereby proclaim the days from Tuesday, February 14, 1933, to Tuesday, February 21, 1933, both dates inclusive, to be public holidays during which time all banks, trust companies, and other financial institutions conducting a banking or trust business within the state of Michigan shall not be opened for the transaction of banking or trust business, the same to be recognized, classed and treated, and have the same effect in respect to such banks, trust companies, and other financial institutions as other legal holidays under the laws of the state, provided that it shall not affect the making or execution of agreements or instruments in writing or interfere with judicial proceedings.Dated this Fourteenth day of February 1933, 1:32 a.m.
Sources :
Historical Society of Michigan.
History GrandRapids.org
Susanne Weible, “Two Jackson banks took a one-week holiday in 1933“, MLive, March 2, 2009.