Among the solid, conservative and most thoroughly reliable moneyed institutions in Alameda county is numbered the Central National Bank of Oakland, which with its savings affiliation, the Central Savings Bank, has long been a prominent factor in the financial development of this section of the state. The Central Savings Bank is the older institution, having been organized in 1892 as the Home Savings Bank. This title was subsequently changed to the Central Bank and under this name it continued as both a savings and commercial bank until August 12, 1909. On that date the commercial business of the Central Bank was turned over to a new institution known as the Central National Bank of Oakland, with a paid up capital and surplus of one million, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, which has since been increased to one million five hundred thousand dollars. The Central Bank afterward continued as a strictly savings institution and in April, 1911, its title was changed to the Central Savings Bank of Oakland, its capital having previously been increased from three hundred thousand dollars to five hundred thousand dollars, with a surplus and undivided profits of three hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars. The combined resources of the two banks are approximately sixteen million two hundred and sixty-eight thousand dollars. The Central National Bank has assets in the neighborhood of nine million dollars, and the Central Savings Bank takes rank with the largest institutions of its kind in the city, its assets being approximately seven million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The two banks are housed in a five-story brick and stone building at the northeast corner of Fourteenth street and Broadway, a property which the Central Savings Bank purchased in 1892 and which it has occupied continuously since that time. The building has a floor area of about one hundred by one hundred feet and this affords ample room for the conduct of the banking business as well as for a spacious lobby. The directors have recently installed new coin and book vaults of the latest design, the former being practically impregnable. The safe deposit vaults are located on the Fourteenth street side of the building and entrance to them may be had both from Fourteenth street and from the lobby of the bank. These are the property of the Central Savings Bank and have the largest and finest safe deposit equipment to be found in Oakland.
The officers of the Central National Bank are as follows: J. F. Carlston, president; H. N. Morris, R. M. Fitzgerald and H. A. Mosher, vice presidents; and A. J. Mount, cashier. Both banks are under the control of the same board of directors, which is composed of the following members: J. F. Carlston, president; H. N. Morris, vice president; R. M. Fitzgerald, vice president and attorney at law in Oakland; John P. Maxwell of the Maxwell Hardware Company; J. W. Phillips, president of the Grayson-Owen Company, wholesale butchers; T. A. Crellin, of the Morgan Oyster Company and the Ruby Hill Vineyard Company; W. G. Manuel, capitalist; George L. Kraft, capitalist; J. K. Moffitt, vice president and cashier of the First National Bank of San Francisco; A. S. Blake, president of Blake Brothers, Incorporated, and W. T. Veitch, contractor and capitalist. All of these men have proved their capabilities in representative lines of endeavor and are recognized as farsighted, keen and discriminating business men. They have made the policy of the Central National Bank and of the Central Savings Bank of Oakland one of progressiveness tempered by a safe conservatism and under their efficient management the banks have had a steady and rapid growth, both being known today as being among the leading financial institutions in Alameda county.
Past and Present of Alameda County California, Vol. II
Published in Chicago by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1914
Pages 70-72
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 5/25/2008
Alameda County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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