Just like pharmacies and mom and pop grocers, Ingleside is down to one full-service bank.
The Wells Fargo branch on the 1100 block of Ocean Avenue, which opened in August 2017, is now the location offering in-person banking since Chase permanently closed its branch five blocks away because of contamination on Dec. 15, 2021.
“Given the importance of face-to-face conversations, this branch and the bankers will play an important role in strengthening our relationship with the community,” Wells Fargo’s San Francisco Region Bank President Greg Morgan said in a news release for its grand opening.
Two years ago the neighborhood had a handful of banks.
Not long after absorbing the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Employees Credit Union on the 1400 block of Ocean Avenue, Unify Financial Credit Union closed its branch in January 2020.
Citibank closed its outpost at the corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue in 2020, too.
But no bank has had a continuous presence on the corridor than Bank of America, which gave up its ATMs on the 1600 block of Ocean Avenue in 2020.
Bank of America
Bank of America had a long presence in the neighborhood spanning 93 years.
In 1927, Bank of Italy National Trust & Savings Association, which was renamed Bank of America in 1931, built the Spanish Colonial Classical Revival or Neo-Classicism style at the corner of Faxon and Ocean avenues.
Henry A. Minton, its architect, is known for designing a number of bank buildings across the Bay Area and remodeling the Mission Dolores Basilica along with partnering with Thomas Lamb for the design of San Francisco’s Fox Theater.
Bank of America sold the building in 1998, but left two ATMs in operation.
In 2000, the San Francisco Public Library leased the space to temporarily house the Ingleside Branch Library. The library vacated the location for its new building at Plymouth and Ocean avenues in 2008.
In 2005, the property was to be included in the 1601 to 1635 Ocean Ave. development project, Planning Department documents show, the very project that brought to the fore contamination problems that led to its closure in the summer of 2021.
Chase leased the storefront in 2011 and performed a full restoration of much of the building’s historic features while adding modern ones. The bank held an open house for the public on Aug. 25, 2012.
Bank of America’s ATMs were later moved across the street.
In 2020, Bank of America attempted to open a full-service bank at 1600 Ocean Ave. where it had an ATM vestibule but the planning code prevented it from doing so after a lengthy review.
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