Bank of Italy Building

Built in 1918, this seven-story Italian Renaissance Revival style building is renowned for its ornate terra cotta and brick. It was originally home to the Bank of Italy, the same bank that later became the Bank of America. The interior lobby reflected California's booming economy during the early 20th century. Visitors would have been awed by the grand entrance and its marble floors and staircases as well as the twenty-five-foot-tall ceiling finished with decorative plaster. The elevator doors were finished with etched brass and the stairs were made of solid mahogany. A two-story rear addition was completed in 1928 in a similar style. The Bank of Italy building became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1982. The building now houses office space.

The Bank of Italy began expanding from San Francisco into other California towns in 1909 with a branch in San Jose; they were located in a dozen towns by 1917. They established a branch in Fresno by 1916 and had the massive eight-story, steel-frame building constructed from 1917 to 1918 at the corner of Tulare and J (now Fulton) streets. The design was by Charles Franklin, a member of a local architectural firm, R. F. Felchlin Company. Excavations for the foundation began in August 1917; the nineteen-foot-deep concrete foundation's bottom three feet were within groundwater. Nearly 300 tons of steel went into the Italian Renaissance Revival style building's construction.

The ground floor was faced in terra cotta, with arched doorways and window openings. The main entrance was on the longer side of the tower, facing J (Fulton) street. Decorative panels separated the row of rectangular windows on the portion of the base above the ground floor. The five floors above the base were faced in brick with decorative terra cotta panels above the windows. The top floor of the building featured a series of Florentine arches with cartouches above each pier, below a heavy, terra cotta cornice. Work wasn't complete until fall of 1918; tenants began to move into the office floors that October. The building and its bank fixtures cost a quarter of a million dollars. A local history in 1919 deemed the building the finest edifice in Fresno, from an artistic standpoint.

The Bank of Italy acquired many smaller banks in towns across the state, including several in Fresno: the Fresno National Bank (in 1915); People's Savings Bank (1917); and First National Bank of Fresno (1919). By late 1918, the Bank of Italy was the fourth largest bank in California in terms of assets. It advertised in a Fresno newspaper that Bank of Italy savings accounts would make great Christmas gifts, with only a dollar needed to start a new account (see the image above). The bank had 33 branches in California by 1921 with assets of $157 million. O. J. Woodward served as vice-president of the Bank of Italy in 1921; assistant manager of the Fresno branch was M. S. Hays.

The building was expanded in 1928 by a two-story rear wing along Tulare St. The architectural details of the Tulare St. facade of the original tower were duplicated in the addition; the wing was topped by the same type of balustrade that topped the tower. Bank of Italy later reorganized as Bank of America. The building later came to be called Bank of America on Fulton Mall; the mall was a six-block section of Fulton St. between Tuolumne and Inyo streets that was closed to vehicular traffic in the 1960s. The building was vacant and under renovation in the early 1980s when it was documented for listing in the National Register. The pedestrian mall was obliterated in the mid-2010s and Fulton St. was re-established for vehicles. The former Bank of America building features nearly 70,000 square feet in downtown Fresno, currently with thousands of square feet of office space available for lease.

Anonymous. "Bank of Italy Buys Three Additional Branches." Merced County Sun (Merced) November 16th, 1917. 6-6.

Anonymous. "Bank of Italy Gets Control of Fresno Bank." Stockton Daily Independent (Stockton) July 16th, 1919. 4-4.

Anonymous. "To Erect Modern Bank Building." Hanford Daily Sentinel (Hanford) April 21st, 1921. 5-5.

Anonymous. "Bank of Italy Buys Another Bank in Fresno." Daily News Leader (San Mateo, CA) July 15th, 1919. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Bank of Italy Cuts Interest in Fresno." Stockton Daily Independent (Stockton) January 1st, 1917. 4-4.

Downtown Fresno Partnership. Bank of Italy (1015 Fulton St.), Office Space for Lease. January 1st, 2024. Accessed April 29th, 2024. https://www.downtownfresno.org/space-available/bank-of-italy-1015-fulton-st.

Historic Fresno. National Register of Historic Places: Bank of Italy. Accessed ca. 2017. http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/nrhp.htm.

James, Marquis. James, Bessie R. The Story of Bank of America: Biography of a Bank. Edition 2002 reprint. Washington, DC. BeardBooks, 1954.

LoopNet. 1015 Fulton Mall, Fresno, CA 93721, Property for Lease. January 1st, 2024. Accessed April 29th, 2024. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1015-Fulton-Mall-Fresno-CA/4126914/.

Sheehan, Tim. "Months behind schedule, Fulton Street restoration is finally complete." The Fresno Bee (Fresno) October 21st, 2017. A sec, 1, 5.

Triplett, Robert I, Jr. California Office of Historic Preservation. NRHP nomination of Bank of Italy Building, 1015 Fulton Mall, Fresno, CA. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1982.

Vandor, Paul E. History of Fresno County. Edition scan of 1919. Volume 2. Altenmuster, Germany. Jazzybee Verlag Jurgen Beck, 2020.

Vandor, Paul E. History of Fresno County California, With Biographical Sketches.... Volume 1. Los Angeles, CA. History Record Company, 1919.