This classical building on the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Wilton Place was designed by architects Morgan, Walls and Clements for Security-First National Bank of Los Angles in 1929.

A permit for the structure was obtained in November 1929, less than 3 weeks after the Stock Market Crash had caused a major Panic and a run on banks, many of which collapsed. When plans for the bank’s new Hollywood branch were made public in December 1929, depositors must have felt doubly assured that their money was in safe hands and there was no need to withdraw it and hide it under the mattress.

Hollywood Daily Citizen 12/9/1929

Security-First National Bank had come to be in January 1929, the result of a merger between Security Trust and Savings Bank and Los Angeles-First National Bank.

Security Trust and Savings Bank itself had been created in December 1911 when investor Joseph Saroni’s Security Savings Bank consolidated with the Southwest Trust Company and Equitable Savings. Los Angeles-First National Trust and Savings Bank had merged with Pacific Southwest Trust and Savins Bank in February 1924.

LA Evening Express 3/7/1930

The new Hollywood branch opened at 5701 Hollywood Boulevard on March 8, 1930. It replaced its previous Hollywood branch at 5906 Hollywood Boulevard at Bronson, which had opened only a few years earlier, in 1924, as the Pacific-Southwest Trust and Savings Bank.

Hollywood Daily Citizen 10/17/1924

With such rapid changes, it’s a wonder customers could remember where their bank branch was located, let alone the name of the bank.

Practically every LA child was, or wanted to be, a card-carrying member of Security-First National Bank’s Hopalong Cassidy Savings Club, launched in March 1951, which could net you a letter from Hoppy, a Hoppy bank and other swag, plus coded messages that only members could decipher. On opening day, tellers wore Hoppy costumes but neither Hoppy nor Topper could appear. LA Daily News 3/14/1951.

In 1968, Security-First National Bank merged with Pacific National Bank of San Francisco and became known as Security Pacific National Bank.

The bank’s branch at 5701 Hollywood Boulevard became “Escrow Center” in 1973. The building is a lone survivor, its neighbor, the adjacent Ralphs Market (which also opened in 1930 having purchased the site from the bank) being long gone.

5701 Hollywood Boulevard at Wiltern in 2018. Google map image.

Notes:

In August 1991, after a series of bad overseas investments, Security Pacific National Bank merged with Bank of America and continued in business as Bank of America thereafter.

Located on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard facing Gramercy Place, 5620 Hollywood Boulevard could almost be a mini-Los Angeles City Hall. John Parkinson, who designed the building along with Donald Parkinson, had been one of the architects for the City Hall, which had opened less than two years earlier. In addition to the eye-catching 80-foot tower, the 2-story building had 3550 square feet for the bank’s needs and 4 retail shop spaces.

California Bank announced that it was constructing a new Hollywood branch in January 1930, having purchased the land from real estate investors Rodolfo and Consuelo Montes. 1930 was not a great year to be a bank. The Stock Market Crash in October 1929 had resulted in a run on banks and many had failed. Before federally-insures deposits, when a depositor’s money was gone, it was gone. In 1930, banks had to look solid, like they would still be around the next year and the year after that, to convince customers to trust them with their money rather than hiding it under their mattresses.

LA Evening Express 1/11/1930

California Bank had started in 1904 as the Co-operative Savings Bank. It changed its name the following year to California Savings Bank. In 1915 it was renamed California Savings & Commercial Bank.

In February 1918, California Savings & Commercial Bank opened its first Hollywood Branch, on the southeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard at Western Avenue.

Hollywood Citizen 3/1/1918

California Savings & Commercial Bank was acquired by Hibernian Savings Bank in 1919 and Hibernian took over all of its branches. The same year, Hibernian merged with Home Savings Bank. In November 1920, it became “California Bank.”

1930. California State Library photo.

California Bank’s new Hollywood-Gramercy Branch opened to the public on June 30, 1930. It replaced the Hollywood and Western branch.

Entrance detail, 1930. California State Library photo.

Hollywood Daily Citizen 6/27/1930

Just a little over a year later, in August 1931, the bank would open its main Hollywood branch in the new Equitable Building at Hollywood and Vine. There would also be a West Hollywood branch at 7550 Sunset Boulevard.

The California Bank Building in 1937. Next door at 5610 Hollywood Blvd. is the Edith Jane School of Dancing. Herman J. Schultheis photo, LAPL.

In June 1945, due to consolidation, the Hollywood Gramercy branch became surplus and the bank put the building up for sale.

Hollywood Citizen News 6/8/1945

It housed a radio training school for the remainder of the 1940s. In 1950 it became the Coast Visual Training Company, which lasted into 1968. It went on to have other uses.

The building was damaged in the January 1994 Northridge Earthquake but was repaired and is extant today.