Building and Loan Associations were the quintessential local financial institutions in late-19th-century America. The United States Building, Mutual Loan and Accumulating Fund Association of Albany represents this mutualist model: members saved collectively to finance each other's real-estate purchases in turn. This Class A Series A certificate No. 1285 for 3 shares, issued 4 December 1895, is a historical document of value on several levels: it bears witness to the development of access to home ownership for the American middle classes, to Albany's role as a financial center of New York State, and to the diversity of popular savings instruments of the Victorian era. For collectors of 19th-century American scripophily, this certificate is a rare and well-documented piece.