For more than three decades, Millard Sheets and his studio of artists designed Home Savings and Loan banks throughout California, studding their iconic projects with mosaics, murals, stained glass and sculptures that celebrated both family life and the history of the Golden State. This study recovers the history of this public art, from the commissioning of the first bank branch in 1952 through the recent history of the properties’ sale. It advances contemporary urban history by chronicling a corporate investment in public memory, describing how this interplay of community banking and public art fostered an image of community in California’s notoriously spread-out suburbs through invocation of classic scenes of local and state history. The website documents my ongoing research through its Image of the Week series.