On the corner at L and Fourth streets, the weathered former Sacramento Savings building started demolition with a bulldozer this last Tuesday. Signs were posted on the building over three years ago that demolition was planned, but this was its last week.
The privately owned bank with the Pony Express rider logo had been in business since the 1870s, growing to more than 40 branches across the Central Valley and into the north state before First Interstate Bank acquired the lender in the mid-1990s. First Interstate was later bought by Wells Fargo.
Known as the ugly duckling of downtown buildings in the 1960s and 1970s, the building at 424 L Street will soon become a parking lot with no other plans in the near future.
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"Known as the ugly duckling"?? By whom, in what context?
This building was designed by Dreyfuss & Blackford in 1962 as part of the redevelopment of Capitol Mall.
According to an article from the Sacramento Bee dated April 1, 1962, the three-story building with a basement was "the first of its kind to be completed in any redevelopment area in the western United States."
It was made of precast concrete panels with exposed rock and native stones from Lincoln, CA. It had several unique and modern features, including a drive-ip teller's window, community room with a kitchen (that civic clubs could use free of charge).
At the Grand Opening celebration per an advertisement from the Sacramento Bee that same day, visitors could enjoy guided tours, refreshments and special surprises as well as seeing 14 Aerojet missile models, a Western gun collection, cooking demonstrations, Zingo the clown, Captain Sacramento in person and a free cookbook.
The current annual savings rate, per the ad, was 4.6%
I'm personally sorry to see this example of mid-century architecture building be destroyed and wish it could have been creatively and adaptively reused.
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