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Overview

This short-lived bank tower lasted from 1904 until 04/18/1906 and accommodated the second headquarters of the Italian-American Bank. The location was just south of North Beach, the neighborhood where many Italian-Americans congregated by 1900.

Building History

Grape-grower and banker Andrea Sbarboro (1839-1923) commissioned the San Francisco architect Thomas J. Welsh, Sr. (1845-1918) to design this second headquarters of the Italian-American Bank, on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Sacramento Streets in San Francisco's Financial District. Interestingly, Welsh, too, had been a banker, having headed the Mutual Savings and Loan Association in 1889.

Announcement of the new Italian-American Bank was made in the San Francisco Chronicle of 08/07/1902, The newspaper said of the new skyscraper: “An important step in the improvement of Montgomery street, north of California street, will be the erection of the Italian-American Bank building on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Sacramento streets. This site has a frontage of 42 feet on Montgomery street, and will extend 103 feet on Sacramento street. At the Sacramento end of the lot for a distance of 34 ½ feet it extends southward 137 ½ feet, thus possessing a much larger area than will appear from the street. The designs drawn by Thomas J. Welsh show a seven-story and basement structure in the style of the modern renaissance. Concrete is to be used for the foundation walls and piers. The superstructure will be supported by steel girders and columns, extending to the third floor. To this height both frontages of the building are to be faced with granite, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth stories having a veneer of Colusa sandstone, and the seventh story being finished on the outside in terra cotta of similar grade to the stone. The ground floor on Montgomery street will be used by the bank to a depth of 68 feet, 9 inches, while 30 feet on Sacramento street will be occupied by a store having a depth of 125 feet, and the upper stories will be arranged as offices. The entrance to the bank is to be on the corner, and will be flanked by granite Ionic columns. The entrance to the office floors will be on Montgomery street, while two elevators will offer easy access to and from the upper stories. Both the bank offices and all of the others in the building will be handsomely furnished, marble, mosaic and hard woods being employed. The land on which the Italian-American bank will stand cost $75,000. The building will require an outlay of from $225,000 to $250,000 additional, thus bringing up the total investment of the institution of which Andrea Sbarboro is president to over $300,000.” (See “Italian American Bank’s New Home,” San Francisco Chronicle, 08/07/1902, p. 5.)

Demolition

The tower was ruined during the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 04/18-19/1906.

PCAD id: 25234