The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Winter 1984, Volume 30, Number 1
Thomas L. Scharf, Managing Editor
Back to the article: San Diego Trust & Savings Bank
Front Cover. The present-day ground floor interior of San Diego Trust and Savings Bank located at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Opened in 1928, the building is still a prominent San Diego landmark. The bank itself dates from 1889 when it opened its doors as the San Diego Savings Bank. It will be ninety-five years old this year. The committment of this financial institution to the growth and development of San Diego is one of the cities greatest success stories.
Page 29. A revolving aerial beacon was a distinctive feature of the main office building of the San Diego Trust and Savings Bank from 1928 to 1933
Page 30. Joseph Weller Sefton, the founder of the San Diego Savings Bank.
Page 30. An early bank “Cashier’s Cage”.
Page 31. A ledger page revealing account activity for the Bank’s opening day, May 15, 1889.
Page 31. The first offices of the San Diego Savings Bank were in the First National Bank Building at Fifth and E Street.
Page 32. The bank encouraged visitors to the 1915 San Diego Panama-California Exposition.
Page 33. Joseph Sefton, Jr. (back seat, far right) joins in a parade for the 1915 Expo. ground-breaking.
Page 33. A busy San Diego street scene looking east on Broadway in the 1920s, just before the bank began construction of its new offices
Page 34. San Diego Savings Bank officially became San Diego Trust and Savings Bank in 1925.
Page 34. During World War II, war bonds were a popular item offered for sale at the bank.
Page 35. A bank sponsored Christmas choral concert (opposite) about 1940.
Page 35. San Diego Trust hosts a picnic for the 1965 Little League Champions. Thomas W. Sefton, president of the bank since 1960, is at far right, standing.
Page 36. In 1928 San Diego Trust and Savings Bank already thirty-nine-years-old, opened the doors of its new main office building at the corner of Sixth and Broadway. Designed by William Templeton Johnston, it was an architectural landmark for the city. Today, ninety-five years after its founding, the bank continues to provide a solid commitment to the city whose growth it has so closely paralleled.
Back Cover. Wendell Stubbs, one of the bank’s tellers, accepts deposits from two young San Diegans about 1920.
