Antoine Borel (December 29, 1840 – March 26, 1915) was a banker for the eponymous Borel & Co., headquartered in San Francisco, California. He was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland and emigrated to the United States in 1862, where he joined his brother's bank and served as a Swiss consul and director for several companies, including the Spring Valley Water Company, the California Street Cable Company, and the Bankers' Investment Company. He died following an operation in Switzerland, to where he had returned in July 1914 for health issues.
Early life
Borel was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, to a wealthy merchant family,[1] and completed his education in Switzerland and Germany. He emigrated to San Francisco, arriving in 1862,[2] following his brother Alfred,[1] who had arrived in 1855.[3]: 81
Alfred Borel founded Borel & Co. in 1852; Antoine joined him in 1862, and the business was turned over to Antoine when Alfred returned to Europe in 1898.[3]: 81 [4]: 57–59 Antoine was appointed the vice-consul of Switzerland to California and Nevada when he was 21, ascending to consul-general in 1885, a position he held until 1913.[1] During this period, Antoine also served on the board of several companies, including the Spring Valley Water Company, the California Street Cable Company, the Wells Fargo Express Company, and the Bank of California Company.[5]
Borel was a prominent philanthropist in San Mateo, California, where he had established a summer home in 1874 on the advice of their family's doctors. After a fire in 1883 which destroyed the city's public library,[6] Borel donated land for a new library building,[7] which subsequently was destroyed in another fire in 1887.[3]: 86–87 [8] Borel also built a chapel on the edge of his property, later known as Geneva or Grace Chapel, in 1892; it later was turned over to Saint Matthews Episcopal Church in 1902, and then to the Hillbarn Theatre, a community theater organization, in 1937.[3]: 117
Personal life and legacy
Antoine Borel and his wife, Grace (née Canitrot, 1849–1923), were married in 1871[9] and had seven children,[1] six of which were living at the time of his death:[10] five daughters and one son.[2]
Borel died on March 26, 1915,[19] in Lausanne, Switzerland, following an intestinal operation. He had returned to Switzerland in July 1914 with members of his family for health reasons,[2] and took up residence there after being stranded by World War I.[20]
Legacy
View directed east c. 1962, showing SR 92 under construction; the Borel family estate was the wooded area north (left) of the new freeway
Borel acquired the 300-acre (120 ha) "Homestead Estate" site in 1874 for US$25,000 (equivalent to $670,000 in 2023) from the estate of François L. A. Pioche,[21][22]: 272 who also was a prominent San Francisco banker.[23] That site was west of El Camino Real near present-day SR 92 in San Mateo;[1][24] Antoine Borel used it as his summer residence.[25] After his death, it became the year-round home for the Borel family, including San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Aylett R. Cotton Jr., son of Aylett R. Cotton; the younger Cotton had married two of Borel's daughters.[25][26] Portions of the estate were sold off in the 1920s, forming new residential subdivisions south of the original city limits.[3]: 160 [27]: 251 The center section of the estate was designated for the construction of SR 92 in 1961, and the Borel family won settlements totaling more than US$1 million, and the family decided to develop the remaining land, dividing it between the Bovets, who took the eastern portion, and the Cottons, who took the western. A proposal to retain the remaining buildings and gardens as a park was dismissed and they were removed relatively quickly.[3]: 239–240
SR 92 runs partially along the valley formed by Borel Creek, which drains into Seal Slough. The creek was channelized and covered east of Alameda de las Pulgas after the land was acquired for the new freeway.[28] It resurfaces east of the railroad tracks currently used by Caltrain.[29]
The mansion on the Homestead site was started in 1868 by Sidney V. Pringle, then sold to Pioche, who remodeled it before it was acquired by Borel with the estate. It was destroyed in a fire on June 8, 1962;[3]: 140 at that time, it already had been scheduled for demolition.[30] The Borel Place office development was started in the 1960s on the former Homestead site, after the completion of SR 92.[25][27]: 93, 291 The estate's small chapel had a 300 lb (140 kg) brass bell gifted in 1908 from Antoine Borel; when the chapel was torn down in December 1961 to make way for SR 92,[31]: 109 the bell moved with the chapel's owners, Hillbarn Theatre, to Foster City.[32]
A middle school[33] and small neighborhood park, remodeled in 2022,[34] on the Homestead site also are named for Borel.
In 1897, Borel purchased the Château de Gorgier in Switzerland for his visits to that country.[9] It was restored between 1897 and 1905, and after his death, remained with the Borel family until it was sold in 2001.[35]
The Borel Bank & Trust Company was founded by Harold and Ronald Fick in 1979; they are great-grandsons of Antoine Borel,[9] and the bank was headquartered on the former Borel estate in San Mateo.[36] Borel Bank & Trust was acquired by Boston Private Financial Holdings in 2001,[37] changing its name to Boston Private Bank & Trust in September 2012.[38] Boston Private in turn was acquired by SVB Financial Group in 2021, then auctioned in 2023 following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.[39]
^"Robt. Bruce In England Plans S. F. Return". The San Francisco Call and Post. September 22, 1914. Retrieved 15 May 2024. Letters received here from Antoine Borel and his family state that they are established safely at their chalet, near Neufchatel, in Switzerland. Mr. and Mrs. Antoine Borel Sr., with their daughter, Miss Chonita Lupita, and Mr. and Mrs. Louis Bovet (Grace Borel) went abroad early in July. When hostilities began they abandoned all idea of traveling and established themselves in their chalet, where they intend to remain until the war ceases. Their horses and automobiles were confiscated.
^Dalin, David G.; Fracchia, Charles A. (1974). "Forgotten Financier: François L. A. Pioche". California Historical Quarterly. 53 (1): 17–24. doi:10.2307/25157483. JSTOR25157483.
^"Borel Middle School History". San Mateo-Foster City School District. Retrieved 15 May 2024. Borel opened on April 11, 1929, as an elementary school with 150 students and 4 teachers. The school was named in honor of Antoine Borel, a San Mateo community leader.
^Driscoll, Curtis (September 1, 2022). "San Mateo Borel Park opens". San Mateo Daily Journal. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
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