Citibank (Long Beach, California)

 bank, historic landmark

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5354 East 2nd Street
Long Beach, CA 90803
(800) 627-3999
online.citibank.com/US/Welcome.c

This building is one of the few early commercial structures on Second Street which has retained its original architectural character, and for which the succession of uses reflects a dynamic economic environment. Its Spanish Colonial Revival style harmonized with the predominant architectural style of the surrounding residential neighborhood. Originally constructed in 1929 as a restaurant for Mr. C.E. Patty, the architect/engineer was Ray A. Sites of Long Beach. Two other restaurants successively occupied this building until a major remodeling by Francis H. Gentry in 1950 was done for the Bank of Belmont Shore. The building as it is today is largely the product of this remodeling. Other bank uses followed: Coast Bank, and the Bank of San Diego, which closed in 1994.

Francis H. Gentry, who designed the 1950 remodel for the Bank of Belmont Shore, made many important contributions to the City of Long Beach as a civil and structural engineer and as a civic leader. He partnered with Parker O. Wright on the design of the Scottish Rite and York Rite Masonic Temples (1926, 1927), both of which are designated historical landmarks. He served on the City Council as Mayor from 1939 to 1942. He also served on the Long Beach Civil Service Commission and County Sanitation District Boards; as food administrator 1943-45; as chairman of the Mayor's Food Conservation Committee 1947-48; and has been active in the affairs of the Long Beach hotel and restaurant industry. In 1943 he was commissioned as a Major, U.S. Army Reserve. He was a director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau and president of the Board of Trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Masons, Elks, and Native Sons of the Golden West.

The building is also associated with Richard Loynes, Jr., who was listed as owner in 1938. Loynes was a world-famous speed boat racer and champion. From 1923 to 1933 he entered nearly every speedboat regatta in the country, becoming national champion three times, world champion twice, and held sixteen world records. In 1939, he skippered the yacht "Contender" from San Francisco to Honolulu to win the Golden Gate International Exposition trophy, and established another "first" by continuous radio broadcasts coast-to-coast from the yacht. He was twice president of the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and chaired the City's first Marina Committee in 1956, the year of his death at age fifty-five. He was a past president of the State Shoreline Planning Association, a member of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission and the Southern California Marine Radio Council.

The building has had a fascinating succession of uses, with construction drawings dated 1929 for Mr. C. E. Patty's Restaurant prepared by Ray A. Sites of Long Beach. City directories, however, first list this restaurant in 1933, but by 1935, the building was vacant. The next restaurant to occupy this space belonged to Louis Gersten, who lived with his wife Anna at 40 La Verne, a few blocks away. This business survived until 1945, when it became Irwin Schuman's restaurant; construction drawings show that an addition and alterations were done at this time. The 1948 directory lists Jack Laskey's restaurant.