The Campbells: Dan teams up with Leslie Brand

Dan and Margaret Campbell and Leslie and Mary Louise Brand moved to

Glendale within a few months of each other.

Brand had purchased a huge acreage and embarked on a building

project that eventually became known as El Miradero (now Brand Park).

The Campbells purchased a plot of land adjacent to the Brands and

also built a substantial home. They moved there in February 1903, a

year before the Brands finished their mansion.

As the respective houses were being finished and the families were

settling in, Campbell and Brand set their sights on other projects in

the rapidly growing town of Glendale.

Brand had been interested in the region since before the turn of

the century, when he and Henry E. Huntington formed the San Fernando

Valley Land and Development Co. Through that company, they purchased

a large tract of land running north from Glendale’s business district

to Casa Verdugo near Mountain Street. It extended from what is now

Louise Street west to what is now Brand Boulevard.

Originally, they bought the land to secure the right of way for

the interurban line, but Brand saw the potential for growth in

Glendale and set about to maximize his investment.

The railroad was up and running about the same time Brand’s house

was finished. Looking around, Brand must have realized that the

budding community could use a bank. So he organized one.

It wasn’t the first bank in Glendale -- that honor went to the

Bank of Glendale that opened just six months before Brand’s.

Brand purchased a two-story, brick building just north of

Broadway, recently built by a local consortium. It was known as the

Masonic Building since the Masons rented the second floor.

Brand asked Dan to be a vice president and manager his new bank,

First National Bank, which opened in November 1905.

Four years later, Brand and Campbell sold their interest in the

bank. The next year, Campbell opened the first bank in Tropico, the

Bank of Tropico, at the corner of San Fernando Road and Central

Avenue. The bank changed its name to First National Bank of Tropico

in 1912, and later moved to a new, two-story building at the

northwest corner of Brand and Cyrpess.

Several years later, Campbell opened another bank in Tropico. This

one, known as the Community Savings & Commercial Bank, opened on Nov.

13, 1922. Later it became the first Bank of America in Glendale.

Tucked away in a box in the old Campbell house in northwest

Glendale are the plans for both of the banks Campbell started: the

Bank of Tropico and the Community Savings & Commercial Bank.

Next Week: Dan and his brother Arthur become partners.

* KATHERINE YAMADA’S column runs Saturdays. To contact her, leave

a message at 637-3241. For more information on Glendale’s history,

contact the reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027 or

visit the Special Collections Room at Central. It is open from 1:30

to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays or by appointment.