Celebrating 75 Years of Dedicated Service
The year is 1949. Harry Truman is president. The New York Yankees won the World Series, and cable television is widely available for the first time. Along with all of this, our tell-tale founding moment is about to happen, where the Contra Costa County Sheriff dropped a shoebox with $1,211 on the desk of his secretary, Elinor Aljets, and asked her to start a credit union.
Fast forward 75 years and a lot has happened. We have expanded to a total of seven branches, extending all throughout the East Bay Area. We’ve also moved our corporate headquarters three times and changed our name twice. We were originally Contra Costa County Employees Federal Credit Union, then Contra Costa Federal Credit Union, and finally 1st Northern California Credit Union. We have now been going strong as 1st Nor Cal for nearly a decade. With expanded services as well as expanded service regions, we’re able to assist more members of the community than ever, which lives up to our credit union promise of “People Helping People.”
As an organization based on community, originally serving county employees, then city employees (extending to a few additional cities outside of Martinez), and then adding Solano and Alameda county employees, we have always been dedicated to helping the cities and people around us. Then in 2016, we ultimately decided to become a credit union without walls and opened our doors to anyone living, working, studying or worshiping in Contra Costa, Alameda and Solano counties who wanted to be a part of our community.
In the 75 years since that defining moment at the sheriff’s office, we have grown stronger than ever, showing up for our community and continuing to grow our membership. We are always open to learning more about how we can better serve our members, the community, and each other. We hope you take the time to stop by one of our branches, where we can learn how to best serve you. We are excited to begin celebrating this very special anniversary and are getting ready to shine a light on many of the fantastic people, services, and local efforts that 1st Nor Cal has invested in. You may have even seen one of our celebration banners at your local 1st Nor Cal branch, and more exciting updates are on the way. We can’t believe it’s been 75 years, and we are so excited about the future of 1st Northern California Credit Union. Thank you for helping us reach this monumental milestone, and we look forward to continuing to serve you and the East Bay community for many more years to come.
Be sure to follow us online and be the first to hear about our services, branch updates, and 75th anniversary news.
P.S. help us spread the word – tell your friends, coworkers and family members to join 1st Nor Cal today!