Bank of Italy Building

The Bank of Italy building opened in 1908 and is located in San Francisco's Financial District. The Bank of Italy moved into their new building after the San Francisco Fire of 1906 destroyed their existing building and many others throughout the city. This bank was first established to serve local working-class citizens, especially Italians from the city's North Beach (Little Italy) neighborhood. It served for over 10 years as headquarters for the Bank of Italy, which later merged with the Bank of America. It is now a National Historic Landmark for its association with A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy. Now known as the Clay‐Montgomery building, luxury menswear brand Wingtip occupies part of the ground floor; there are office spaces on the upper floors and the Amador Club (restaurant) on the 10th floor.

When Amadeo Peter Giannini and his associates launched the Bank of Italy in North Beach on October 17, 1904, they were headquartered in a section of the Drexler Building on Montgomery (now Columbus) Avenue which had formerly housed a saloon. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed this structure in 1906, the bank was forced to seek other quarters. The first shipment of building materials to reach the city afterwards was paid for with unsecured loans from Bank of Italy. Shortly after this disaster, Giannini set up two makeshift offices and then moved into space at 632 Montgomery St., further from North Beach (Little Italy) and closer to the heart of the city's financial district.

Bank of Italy soon purchased an empty lot on the southeast corner of Montgomery and Clay Streets to build a new bank/ office building. This little-altered, eight-story, Renaissance Revival structure, situated at 550 Montgomery Street in San Francisco's financial district, served as headquarters for A. P. Giannini 's Bank of Italy from August 17th, 1908 to 1921. In 1912, Giannini served as the bank's vice president and Lorenzo Scatena (Giannini's stepfather) was its president; Armondo Pedrini worked as the head cashier. Scatena was born in Italy in 1850 and married Giannini's widowed mother in 1877; he and A. P. Giannini founded the Italian Bank of California (soon renamed Bank of Italy) in 1904. By 1921, when operations were moved to a newer, seven-story building at 1 Powell Street, Bank of Italy operated 36 branches in 28 cities. In the 1930’s, this former headquarters on Montgomery St. became a branch of the Bank of America of California after its merger with Bank of Italy.

The structure of the building was steel-framed, consisting of a two-story base, a four-story shaft, and a two-story crown. The building was designed by Frank T. Shea of Shea & Lofquist, architects. The ground floor facade was built from granite cladding while the upper ones, which mimic the design forms, were from less expensive terra cotta. The interior resembled a jewel box of white marble and gold leaf detailing with a spectacular coffered ceiling. Although F.T. Shea was the building's architect, Giannini himself closely supervised its design and construction.

Ny 1945, Bank of America was the world's largest commercial bank, with over $5 billion in assets. Giannini (1870-1949) has been called someone who "probably did more to democratize and popularize banks than any other individual;" this building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978 for its association with this son of Italian immigrants. On September 4, 2012, men's luxury retailer Wingtip (formerly known as On The Fly) opened a retail location on the building's ground floor, with tailoring and barber services in the basement vault. 

Anonymous. "L. Scatena of Bank of Italy Fame is Dead." Healdsburg Tribune (Healdsburg) August 21st, 1930. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Death of Lorenzo Scatena Rouses Sympathies of All." Sausalito News (Sausalito) August 22nd, 1930. 1-1.

Bank of Italy. "Banking Power - insures strength...." Organized Labor (San Francisco) September 3rd, 1921. 50-50.

Bonadio, Felice A. A. P. Giannini: Banker of America. online. Plunkett Lake Press, 2024.

Christian, Ralph J. NRHP Nomination, Bank of Italy Building, 552 Montgomery St., San Francisco, CA. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1977.

H. S. Crocker Co. Crocker-Langley San Francisco Directory 1912. San Francisco, CA. H. S. Crocker Co., 1912.

National Park Service. A.P. Giannini Retrospective. Accessed 2015. http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/78000754.pdfhttp://giannini.ucop.edu/APG/Retrospective.pdf.

National Park Service. Bank of Italy Building, 552 Montgomery St., Statement of Significance, National Historic Landmarks Program. Accessed June 25th, 2025. https://web.archive.org/web/20071114222926/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1747&ResourceType=Building.