Abandoned Chicago Bank with a Vault Where Money Was Still on the Floor

This is a massive abandoned bank in Chicago, and the vault is the reason I wanted it on camera. There was still money in it. The exact location stays off this page.

A friend came with me. My hands were shaky at the start because we kind of had the cops called on us and had to hurry up.

What we found

The first thing I said on camera was that this bank is absolutely massive.

Down by the vault there was still money lying around, and the first question out loud was whether it was real. The carpet back there was gross, so we took slow steps. It all pretty much looks the same back there, so I got some pictures. My friend had already been down to see the vault. We passed an FDIC insured sign, and further back everything was muddy and absolutely gross.

Upstairs there’s an extremely old elevator, and it’s so tiny. In one of the offices someone said it was crazy. Then we found the security room, with wires everywhere. From there you can see what security would see, looking out over the bank.

There’s a bathroom and another staircase going up. At the top is the meeting room, where the big wigs would go. One room upstairs I liked a lot, and we called it the memory of ash, or the memory of dust. People had signed their initials and the year on the walls, and we spotted 2016, 2018 and 2019. Back in the meeting room a chair was still sitting there.

That pretty much wraps up the bank. We explored almost all of it, and then we just had to get out without getting caught.

Why places like this end up empty

I don’t know why this bank closed, and the video doesn’t say. Two reported facts explain a lot about banks like it.

The first is that banks have been shrinking for years. The Federal Reserve counted a peak of 102,630 branches in 2008 and 88,926 in 2021, about 13.4 percent fewer. In 1990 the count was 75,855.

The second is the vault. In January 2025 the Cleveland Street Alliance described a vault removal at a historic bank building. The vault was a large steel and concrete structure, and crews used a remotely operated excavator and took it apart piece by piece to protect the surrounding historic walls and floors.

In the vault area, money was still on the floor.