Hellman Avenue, Long Beach

Oct. 4, 2009

One of California’s earliest bankers didn’t start out that way. KPCC’s Kitty Felde says it’s another Street Story.


Kitty Felde: Isaias Hellman emigrated from Bavaria to Los Angeles in 1859. Theresa Barbee, Docent Coordinator at Rancho Los Alamitos, says just two decades later, Hellman helped finance one of the biggest real estate deals in LA County: the purchase of Rancho Los Alamitos.

Theresa Barbee: He was known as the money man, as he was the founder of the Farmers and Merchants Bank in Los Angeles, which, of course later, became Security Pacific,

Which later became Wells Fargo. But Isaias Hellman was an accidental banker. He was a shopkeeper, and as a courtesy to his customers, would often store their valuables and gold in his safe. One drunken customer dipped into his savings quite often, then couldn’t believe he’d managed to squander all his savings. He tried to attack Hellman. That was when Isaias Hellman started issuing deposit slips - and became a banker. Hellman Street in Long Beach is named for the money man.


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