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5 unusual facts about Bank of California


Alvinza Hayward

Hayward was a director of the Bank of California, and in 1870 was one of the original investors in the San Francisco City Gas Company, which would eventually become the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Bank of California

Upon the retirement of Mills in 1878, William Alvord, a prominent merchant, was elected president of the bank.

Commissioner v. Banks

In the second case, Sigitas J. Banaitis, a vice president of the Bank of California, retained an attorney on a contingent-fee basis and sued the bank and its successor in ownership, the Mitsubishi Bank, for interference with his employment agreement and wrongful discharge.

Edoardo Chiossone

Other portraits followed in 1876, those of Ōkubo Toshimichi, Saigō Tsugumichi (younger brother of Saigō Takamori, who was Minister of the Navy and Home Minister), and William Chapman Ralston of the Bank of California.

New Montgomery Street

The extension was strongly supported by businessman and Bank of California founder William Ralston – who started the construction of the original Palace Hotel, at the time the largest hotel in the Western United States – in an effort to expand San Francisco's business district to the yet undeveloped area south of Market.


Adolph Sutro

Born in Aachen, Rhine Province, Prussia (today North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), Sutro, educated as an engineer, at the age of twenty arrived in the United States and in 1850, he introduced himself to William Ralston of the Bank of California and introduced his plans for de-watering and de-gassing the mine shafts of the Comstock Lode by driving a tunnel through Mount Davidson to drain the water.


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