This was the first permanent home of A.P Gianni's Bank of Italy (later Bank of America). The building features a heavily rusticated classicism, with a first story of carved granite. The suptuous lobby is made of plaster and marble. Founed in 1904, the bank thrived because Giannini reached out to blue collar Italian laborers, which other Italian Banks refused to do. The Bank of Italy ended up absorbing all of the other Italian banks and many others. By the 1970's, it was the world's largest bank.
550 Montgomery Street
Shea and Lofquist, architects