What Happened to the West Hollywood National Bank?

It’s never been hard to find a bank branch in West Hollywood, even in these days of online banking and ATMs tucked inside various businesses, but it is a bit surprising to discover that the city once had its very own bank. While this financial institution had a rather short history, it did leave a trail going directly into a currently well-known (but not well-loved) megabank. 

A recent press release from Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers announced the auction of a very rare bank note that had spent the last century in a private collection. The $10 note is the only known bank note issued by the West Hollywood National Bank of Crescent Heights and signed by bank president Geo. P. Mauser. The note was given to Mauser’s daughter and remained in the family’s collection until recently. 

It was described as “Third Charter Period, Series 1902 Third Issue, Plain Back $10 note bearing serial number 1485 of the West Hollywood National Bank of Crescent Heights, charter 11880.” Also, “Clean and crisp paper, with a few barely noticeable handling marks, the note is of high quality and near Uncirculated.” On December 5, the artifact went for $52,425 to an unnamed buyer.

This news item raised a few questions in my mind. If WeHo once had its own bank, what happened to it? Did it have more than one branch? Did any silent film stars bank there?

With a little digging, I discovered that this financial institution was founded as the Crescent Heights National Bank and was granted charter number 11880. It became the West Hollywood National Bank of Crescent Heights, on November 20, 1922. On December 18, 1926, it was sold to the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank. The West Hollywood Bank of Crescent Heights lasted long enough to issue 6,581 notes, all valued at $10. At the time of the bank’s closing, 2,300 were still outstanding and the note offered by Doyle is the last one known to exist.

A mammoth bank merger took place on July 1, 1922, creating Pacific-Southwest Trust and Savings Bank. Among the local banks absorbed by this deal were Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank,  the Bank of Glendale, Alhambra Savings and Commercial Bank,  Union Trust and Savings Bank of Pasadena, City National Bank of Long Beach and Hollywood Savings Bank. The West Hollywood Bank of Crescent Heights was sold to the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank on Dec. 18, 1926.

Pacific-Southwest Trust & Savings Bank was later absorbed by the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles which had been founded in 1888 as Security Trust & Savings Bank. In 1967, Security-First National Bank acquired Pacific National Bank and became Security Pacific National Bank, which in 1992 was taken over by Bank of America.

This is where it gets personal for me because I had been a customer of Security Pacific Bank since moving here in 1971 who was sucked into the Bank of America merger. Those grand old edifices of finance designed to give customers a feeling of trust have been replaced by banks that resemble coffee shops and smartphone apps. Unfortunately, more info about the original West Hollywood National Bank has faded into history.