826. Bank of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA)

Bank Information

Episode Type
Suspension → Reopening
Bank Type
state
Start Date
September 1, 1875*
Location
Los Angeles, California (34.052, -118.244)

Metadata

Model
gpt-5
Short Digest
73b042f5

Response Measures

None

Description

Articles discuss a coordinated, temporary closure of Los Angeles banks following the Bank of California’s failure in late Aug–Sep 1875. No specific bank is named in the excerpts, so attributing this to the Bank of Los Angeles is uncertain. The Los Angeles Daily Herald (1875-09-29) states the city’s banks were ‘nominally closed by an agreement of the whole three’ but were ‘virtually open’ and meeting withdrawals. This suggests a short-lived, precautionary suspension without a run, followed by resumption. Cause classified as macro/systemic panic connected to the Bank of California failure. OCR likely error: 'Farmers' and Mechanics'' should be 'Farmers' and Merchants'.

Events (2)

1. September 1, 1875* Reopening
Newspaper Excerpt
…they were virtually open. We have yet to learn of a single party who has had a dollar on call who did not get it…
Source
newspapers
2. September 1, 1875* Suspension
Cause
Macro News
Cause Details
Precautionary nominal closure amid panic following the Bank of California failure and nationwide financial strain.
Newspaper Excerpt
While the banks in Los Angeles have been nominally closed by an agreement of the whole three, our experience ... [is] that they were virtually open.
Source
newspapers

Newspaper Articles (3)

Article from The Arizona Sentinel, August 28, 1875

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Article Text

LOS ANGELES. Excitement A bout the Suspension of the Bank of California. Los ANGELES, August 26.--The reported suspension of the Bank of California caused great excitement. It is not known that any of our people will lose. The Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank is one of our institutions, having business relations with the Bank of California, and it is supposed its accounts have the balance on the safe side.


Article from Los Angeles Daily Herald, September 29, 1875

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Article Text

Financial. While the banks in Los Angeles have been nominally closed by an agreement of the whole three, our experience has been, by our daily intercourse in business with them, that they were virtually open. We have yet to learn of a single party who has had a dollar on call who did not get it, be the same great or small. Coin has steadily increased in their vaults, from legitimate sources of business, and we always found free access to draw or deposit as our demands might require. We have yet to learn of a single draft of our banks Laving been dishonored. This is saying much when we remember that the Bank of California was so largely engaged in our commerce and exchange. It is well to remember that while the Gold Bank and Trust Company is open, that it only pays depositors one-fifth of the amount due them. The Bank of California, when it resumes, has an agreement with its depositors that they have the privilege of paying in a range of three, six and eleven months. The others, while their doors are open, give no accommodations, not knowing to what extent this foolish and unnecessary breaking up may affect the mercantile community. These facts, coupled with the fluctuation of gold at the East, the panicy condition of the whole nation, and the doctrine of inflation conventions, make money kings cautious to extreme. The foolish balderdash of windy editors only misleads, and a little truth is necessary to be written.


Article from Los Angeles Herald, December 23, 1890

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Article Text

THE general idea that hard times in the east necessarily mean the same thing on the Pacific coast is by no means sustained by the facts. California, Oregon and Washington seemed to profit by the panic of 1873. Immigration to this state was really stimulated by that financial disaster. Los Angeles, in particular, had quite a lively boom in 1873 and 1874. The failure of the Bank of California and of Temple & Workman in this city, which occurred in the fall of 1875, it is true, hurt us, but that was a strictly local affair. Unfortunately for the budding city, that sweeping calamity was followed by the drouth and smallpox epidemic of 1876-77, which laid us out for a time. The revival which led up to the boom put in an appearance in 1880, and held a steady pace till the close of 1887. It would not be surprising if, after the first effects, the present eastern financial crisis should lead to an increased immigration to this coast. on the principle that people like to escape hard times.