We immediately renewed the drive to find a new home for our church, which we had begun before all the court litigation had taken place. We succeeded within less than a year to accumulate $22,000 or $23,000 towards that goal.

Those days were hard. It was the middle of the Depression. Most of our people were in bad financial shape and getting money from them when they couldn't meet their own obligations, believe me, was a Herculean task.

I then decided to approach the people at the Bank, or more accurately the Capital Corporation that was a subsidiary of the Bank of Italy, to negotiate with them to purchase the building on Valencia Street. George Panario was the manager of the Capital Corporation. He didn't exactly throw me out of his office but he came close. He was very arrogant. He didn't mince any words in telling me that we didn't have a chance in a million to purchase that building for $22,000, which is what had bid for it at the auction sale. I wasn't about to be, let's say, discouraged. I started thinking what method I could use to bring about a settlement and arrangements to buy the building.

In the meantime we kept on looking for other churches that might be for sale or locations where we could get a building and remodel it. And the more we looked the less we were able to find anything as good as what we had on Valencia Street.