The Bank of Italy’s Rapid Reopening After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Published: November 27, 2025 | Reading time: ~3 minutes
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the San Andreas Fault unleashed a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that struck San Francisco with devastating force, followed by fires that consumed over 80% of the city. In the chaos, the financial district—home to the city’s major banks—was reduced to smoldering ruins. Vaults baked in temperatures exceeding 1,500 °F, rendering them inaccessible for weeks. Amid this catastrophe, Amadeo Peter Giannini, the 34-year-old founder of the modest Bank of Italy, demonstrated extraordinary foresight and resilience, reopening his institution faster than any other and providing critical liquidity that fueled the city’s rebirth.
Giannini, an Italian immigrant who had founded the Bank of Italy in 1904 to serve working-class clients shunned by established banks, lived in San Mateo, south of the city. Alerted by early tremors, he rushed north on a horse-drawn buggy, arriving as flames began to spread. Recognizing the peril to his bank’s modest vault at 10 Montgomery Street, Giannini enlisted two produce wagons from a nearby market. He and a small team of employees loaded approximately $300,000 in gold coin, currency, and securities—equivalent to about $10.5 million in 2025 dollars—along with essential ledgers. To evade looters and soldiers enforcing martial law, they concealed the valuables under crates of oranges and vegetables. The convoy navigated streets choked with debris and fire, with one account noting that the heat roasted the overlying fruit by journey’s end.
Secured at a relative’s home in North Beach—a neighborhood spared the worst of the inferno—the assets were safe. Meanwhile, behemoths like Wells Fargo, Crocker National, and the Nevada Bank remained shuttered, their directors waiting for vaults to cool and federal aid to arrive. Giannini, however, saw opportunity in urgency. On April 23—just five days post-quake—he erected a rudimentary desk: a wooden plank balanced on two empty flour barrels at the edge of Washington Square Park, overlooking the bay. A hand-painted sign proclaimed “Bank of Italy – Open for Business.” Operating from dawn to dusk under canvas awnings, Giannini extended loans on the spot, often based on a borrower’s handshake, reputation, or even a simple IOU rather than formal collateral.
Sources
- San Francisco Call, May 19 & 22, 1906 (California Digital Newspaper Collection)
- U.S. Senate Document No. 420, 60th Cong., 1st Sess. (1908)
- Felice A. Bonadio, A. P. Giannini: Banker of America (UC Press, 1994)
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