Earl Grant moved to Pasadena in the 1920s to join his brother in the rubbish hauling business. At that time Altadena did not have a service to haul away garbage. Grant saw an opportunity and started providing that service. After collecting the garbage, he would dump it at a hog farm. Seeing another opportunity, he bought a few hogs and started his own hog farm. It grew to 5,000 hogs supplying Farmer John’s among others.
With his profits he bought property in Pasadena for cash. There came a time when he wished to purchase a property for more than he had in cash. He went to his bank for a loan. They turned him down flat. Within a few years he and his associates founded Broadway Federal Savings. A few years later he founded Watts Savings & Loan in 1949. It was renamed Family Savings & Loan. It moved to the Crenshaw district in the 1960s and had a branch on 1335 N. Lake Avenue Pasadena. It was annually ranked among the nation’s top three black-owned Savings and Loans.
Later OneUnited Bank was established in this location by unifying several community banks across the country: Founders National Bank and Family Savings Bank in Los Angeles, People National Bank in Miami and Boston Bank of Commerce. Respectively, these banks have tenaciously served many neglected urban communities in America. Today, OneUnited is the largest Black-owned bank in the U.S. It is also FDIC insured and initially launched in 1968.
Pasadena Museum of History and OneUnited history