The Well Fargo Bank Building At 340 F Street As a Candidate Davis Historical Resource (189)

As has been reported in several places, the City of Davis is at this time updating its

1a. May 28, 1964

inventory of candidate historical resources. This effort is focused on the years 1945-1975. Given that Davis growth was exponential over those 30 years, the surveyors certainly have their work cut out for them.

Indeed, I am so overwhelmed when I contemplate the task facing the surveyors that I have retreated, at this time, to thinking only about a few obvious candidate “historical resources” built in that 30-year period.

1b. May 28, 1964

One of the first candidates that came to mind was the “Alice house” at 1303 Alice Street, on which I have written in the previous three posts (numbers 186-88).

When I began to think about other candidate historical resources, I asked myself about commercial buildings in the Downtown that were built between 1945 and 1975.

One of the most obvious candidates, to me, is the Well Fargo Bank building at 340 F Street.

There are, of course, a great many commercial buildings built between 1945 and 1975 in the downtown. The problem, though, is that few if any others stand out on any of the four criteria for assessing a place to be an historical resource. I am certain, though, that other people will have different ideas about this. (Below, I reproduce a copy of the criteria.)

Be all this as it may, as a volunteer on the historic resources survey, I have sought to make a modest contribution to that work by digging up some relevant information on the Wells Fargo Bank building (although I have not cast that information in the technical terms required by the survey forms).

So far, this information consists of four Davis Enterprise reports on the planning, building, and opening of the building. They are reproduced here.

2. December 10, 1964

3. March 11, 1965

4a. April 13, 1965

4b, April 13, 1965