A. J. Warren Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight. There's a building sitting in O'Donnell, Lynn County, that's seen more twists in its short life than most structures see in a century. And it all starts with one man: A.

J. Warren. Farmer.

Rancher. The kind of fellow who shows up somewhere and just starts building things. Warren moved to this area in 1902, and within a year he was helping organize Lynn County itself.

That was 1903. The man did not waste time. Now, skip ahead about two decades, and Warren is still at it.

In 1925, he put up a two-story brick and concrete edifice, and he did not cut corners on the thing. Brick and concrete, two stories tall, built to house the First National Bank, which was chartered that very same year. You could almost hear the vault doors swinging open.

Here's where the story takes a turn, though, and it's a sharp one. Competition from another bank came calling, and the two institutions ended up merging. And when the dust settled from that merger, this grand two-story building Warren had just built in 1925 was abandoned.

In 1926. One year. The First National Bank was open in that building for roughly one year before the doors went quiet.

Now, the building didn't just sit there collecting dust forever. Various stores and offices moved through over the years, keeping the old place breathing. Then in 1973, the city of O'Donnell acquired it.

And in 1974, something shifted. The building became the O'Donnell Museum. A.

J. Warren came to this country in 1902, helped build a county from scratch, put up one of the finest buildings around, and that building outlasted the bank, outlasted the businesses, and ended up holding the memory of the whole community. Not a bad second act for a farmer and a rancher.

What the marker says

Farmer and rancher A. J. Warren (1870-1933) moved to this area in 1902 and helped to organize Lynn County in 1903. He built this 2-story brick and concrete edifice in 1925 to house the First National Bank, chartered that year. Competition from another bank led to merger of the two and abandonment of this building in 1926. Various stores and offices occupied the structure before it was acquired by the city of O'Donnell in 1973. It became the O'Donnell Museum in 1974. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975