In writing Mrs. Stein Solves a Crime, the novella that should be ready to publish this week, I needed to do a little research into safe deposit boxes and banks. I quickly discovered that, in the 19th century, banks began to store customers’ valuables in their vaults. However, there were issues over the legal liability banks had over these valuables. The innovation of providing locked boxes, which could be be rented and would only be accessible to the renter, seemed to solve that problem. These safe deposit boxes were considered primarily a US innovation that took off in the 1860s with the establishment of the Safe Deposit Company of New York Safe in 1865. These companies built their own vaults with individual boxes for customers, but they also rented these boxes to banks that then installed them in their own vaults.
In 1875, a safe deposit company was opened in San Francisco in a newly built five-story building that was advertised as being “proof against fire and water and the most ingenious burglars.”
“The construction of the vaults is simple in general outline, but complicated in detail. The plan adoteed is one immense vault, inside of which the thousands of small vaults are aranged. The largest dimensions of the main vault are thirty by thirty - five feet, and eleven feet high. The walls, floor and ceiling of this is a solid fire - proof casing composed of burglar proof metal, in thirty courses of steel and iron, welded and bolted securely .
“Within this impregnable cell are four thousand six hundred small safes, built in solid tiers, the doors of each being furnished with key and combination locks of the finest construction. Surrounding the great vault is a corridor completely inclosed by a network of iron and steel, and here continually, night and day, the armed patrol, under charge of the superintendent, make their rounds .
The small safes are made of burglar - proof material, and each door, besides having the combination locks, is provided with key escutcheons, the key to which is in the hands of the officers. This renders it necessary for an officer to always attend the renter to his safe, as it is impossible for him to unlock it, unless he first have the officer release the escutcheon. There is also an ingenious contrivance which prevents the withdrawal of the key until the safe is again locked by the renter.
Upon entering the vault - room an imposing sight greets the eye. The vaults stand out as a monument of mechanical skill. The engravings of the vaults and vault - room, the different avenues around it, the massive entrance and exit doors, the offices for renters, and the ladies' parlor, all impress one with the grandeur and beauty displayed in their construction.
The safes, and the vault in which they are placed, were planned and constructed by the most skillful mechanics, and under direction of the company's engineers. The quality, not the cost, of the work was considered. No two locks are alike; hence there is no danger of a renter, if he be so inclined and opportunity offers, opening any other than his own safe. Every renter, before being admitted to the vault, must be identified by the proper officer . With every change of renter the lock is also changed. A satisfactory introduction is invariably required of a renter before he can obtain a box. Lights and Shades in San Francisco, B. E. Lloyd, 1876.
Joseph C. Duncan, the man who founded this San Francisco company and was later involved in an embezzlement scandal, sounded familiar to me, so I dug deeper. Much to my amusement, when I did a google search of his name, two of my own works showed up in the list of links. Turns out, I had indeed referenced him very briefly in my short story, Madam Sibyl’s First Client, and in the novella, Violet Vanquishes a Villain. No wonder Duncan sounded familiar!!
Check out this newspaper article about Duncan’s life to see more about his scandal plagued life.