D.O. Mills Bank Building

Historical Landmark in Sacramento, United States

Mills Bank Building

Mills Bank Building and J Street in 1912

Location| 629 J Street, Sacramento, California
Coordinates| 38°34′58″N 121°30′15″W﻿ / ﻿38.5827°N 121.5042°W﻿ / 38.5827; -121.5042
Built| 1852
Architect| Willis Polk & Co.
Architectural style(s)| Neoclassical

California Historical Landmark

Reference no.| 609

Location of Mills Bank Building in California

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D.O. Mills Bank Building (the United States)

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Darius Ogden Mills

Mills Bank Building, also called the D. O. Mills Bank Building, is a historical bank in Sacramento, California, built in 1852 in Old Sacramento. It is a California Historical Landmark No. 609, registered on May 22, 1957. It was built by Darius Ogden Mills and was the oldest and largest bank of early California.[1]

## History

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Darius O. Mills moved to Sacramento in 1848 at age 22 from North Salem, New York, set on looking for gold, but changed to trading. He sold goods in San Francisco and took them up the San Joaquin River for California Gold Rush miners. From this he saw the need for bank to support them. With his brothers, he started the bank on the corner of 3rd Street and J Street. He incorporated the National Gold Bank of D. O. Mills and Company in 1872. The bank was very successful and, in 1912, a new building was built at 7th Street and I Street. Mills died on January 3, 1910, at Millbrae, California, at the age of 84.[2]

In 1925, there was a merger of California National Bank, the California Trust & Savings Bank and the National Bank of D. O. Mills. The 3rd Street and J Street building was expanded and called the California National Bank. The bank closed in 1933, after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Emergency Banking Act of 1933. No depositors lost their funds after the closure. The building was sold to the State of California and used for the California Bureau of Vital Statistics, the California Industrial Accident Claims Board and other California offices. The Bank of Sacramento opened at 812 J Street in 1963 and moved to the former State building May 1966.[3] The Bank of Sacramento was merged into Security Pacific National Bank in August 1979. In 1990, the bank building was sold to private owners.

The building's first floor is the Sacramento Grand Ballroom. In 2017, a food court was added. Some of the bank building has been saved including the original antique brass teller cages and the Italian Marble bar railing. "National Bank of D. O. Mills & Co." and the numerals 1912 are set into the granite front of the building.[4]

## See also

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* California Historical Landmarks in Sacramento County
* Adams and Company Building

## References

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1. ^ "Mills Bank Building #609". Office of Historic Preservation, California State Parks. Retrieved 2012-10-07.
\- "CHL # 609 Mills Bank Building Sacramento". California Historical Landmarks.
2. ^ "D.O. Mills Bank Building (Landmark #609)!". The Bill Beaver Project. March 22, 2015.
3. ^ "Banking on Sacramento's Farm-to-Fork Future: Introducing the Bank at 629 J". Kerrie Kelly Design Lab. March 20, 2017.
4. ^ "Exterior view of the old D. O. Mills Bank building the state purchased to house the State Industrial Accident Commission and the Bureau of Vital Statistics in 1937". December 25, 1949 - via Calisphere.
\- "D. O. Mills Bank and B. F. Hastings buildings" - via Calisphere.
\- Mark Glover (March 12, 2017). "Historic downtown bank building being converted to food court". The Sacramento Bee.
\- "California Historic Landmarks in Old Sacramento". Fox40. December 24, 2022.