Bank of Italy is BofA

JERRY PERSON

The year was 1904 and in San Francisco’s Italian community of North

Beach, a young man was planning his dream.

At the time, San Francisco was the financial hub of the West. Many

large banking houses were catering to the newly rich of the city.

But Amadeo Peter Giannini was motivated to create a different type

of bank, one that would center on the working class that dominated

San Francisco at the time. Giannini’s dream was realized in 1904,

when he founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.

After the 1906 earthquake leveled most of the city, Giannini and

his bank employees were out making loans to help people rebuild their

homes and businesses.

As California grew, so did his bank and the number of branches

spread across Northern California so that by 1920, the Bank of Italy

was able to merge with Transamerica. By 1929, Bank of America would

be created and Giannini’s dream of a national bank was on its way.

So what has this got to do with Huntington Beach history? It would

take Bank of America until 1962 before it would open a branch in our

city.

In the early 1960s, we had only one bank here -- the Security

First National Bank at 202 Main St. Many of our local downtown

businesses were moving out to the newly built Five Points shopping

center at Beach Boulevard and Main Street.

The new 7,250-square-foot bank building would be located at the

northeast corner of Delaware and Main.

The opening date was planned for Fri., July 13, 1962, with a planned open house the evening before. But the bank changed the big

day to July 17 -- maybe so to not tempt fate -- and the open house

ceremony was moved to 7 p.m. on July 16.

The open house followed a colorful opening ceremony, tailored to

fit our city’s fame as an oceanfront resort.

On hand that evening to officially open the doors and launch the

“S.S. Huntington Beach” branch for the Bank of America fleet was our

own William Gallienne, executive secretary of our Chamber of

Commerce; Howard G. Stephens, president of our Chamber of Commerce;

Ralph Windsor, vice president of Bank of America’s Los Angeles

headquarters; Carol Almgren, Miss Huntington Beach; and William

Peterson, the branch’s new manager.

Windsor presented Peterson with a gold key, a Bank of America

tradition for each new branch. Each member of the public attending

the open house was given a card good for a gold key duplicate of

their car’s ignition key as a souvenir.

The bank arranged for special displays and exhibits, including the

coin collection of Cyrus Phillips that traced the history of American

money back to its early days.

For two hours, the public was treated to tours of the vault and

staff rooms and was able to inspect the new windowless teller

stations.

The public was invited to guess the exact number of coins in a

chest in the bank’s entrance foyer. The three coming closest would

receive $50, $25 and $10 bank accounts.

Peterson came to the Huntington Beach branch with 20 years of

banking experience.

Peterson was born in Iowa and, as a youth, his family came to

California and Peterson attended South Gate High. After his

graduation from high school, Peterson attended Compton Community

College, where he received a degree in business administration. He

later attended the American Institute of Banking.

In 1939, Peterson joined Bank of America as a clerk in Los Angeles

and worked his way up the corporate ladder. He worked in the

Torrance, Compton, South Pasadena and Pasadena branches before coming

to Huntington Beach.

Yet he continued to live with his wife Marjorie and three children

-- Sheryl, Gregory and Jeffrey -- in Glendora.

The company picked another Iowan to help Peterson at the bank --

Don Ducommun, the operations manager.

Ducommun received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Morningside

College in Sioux City, Iowa, and did a year of graduate work at Cal

State Long Beach.

His family included wife Carolyn, and they lived in the city of

Orange.

The third member picked was Jack Hyatt, an assistant cashier. He

was born in Brooklyn and attended Thomas Jefferson High and City

College of New York. Hyatt worked at the bank’s Wilshire-La Brea

branch before coming to Huntington Beach and lived in Cypress with

his wife Jo Ann and son Daniel.

Two years later, a second Bank of America was opened, this one on

Springdale Street. Today, Bank of America continues to be an

important part of our community.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.