An 1890 Bank Building

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Somewhere on the Courthouse Square, there stands a building that's been a lot of things to a lot of people, and it starts, as the best Texas stories do, with stone. Irish quarrymen went up to Bower's Hill, two miles north of town, close to the home of a bank director named L.

J. Bower, and they pulled limestone out of that hill and shaped it into something worth looking at. Victorian masonry, fine woodwork, the kind of craftsmanship that makes a building stand up straight and say something.

When that bank went up in 1890, it added dignity to the Courthouse Square. That's the marker's word, dignity, and you believe it. The upper floor held an abstract firm and a land office.

The ground floor, naturally, held the bank itself. Now, here's where the story takes a turn. Drought came for north Texas and the Indian Territory trade areas, the bank's whole world of customers, and when drought came, it didn't leave in a hurry.

By 1895, the bank had failed. A fine building, a dignified building, suddenly without its original purpose. But a building like that doesn't sit empty forever.

In 1906, W. I. Tidwell and his son bought the property and turned it into a retail store.

Then in 1933 it passed to W. A. Corbett.

Then in 1975, Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Roach became its keepers. The lower front facade was last changed in the 1950s, which means the bones of what those Irish quarrymen built on Bower's Hill are still holding their ground.

Stone has a long memory.

What the marker says

Irish quarrymen mined stone for this Victorian structure on Bower's Hill (2 mi. N), near home of bank director, L. J. Bower. With its fine quality masonry and woodwork, the bank building added dignity to the Courthouse Square. An abstract firm and land office occupied the upper floor. After drought in its north Texas and Indian Territory trade areas, the bank failed in 1895. In 1906 W. I. Tidwell and son bought the property for a retail store. It was sold to W. A. Corbett in 1933 and to Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Roach in 1975. The lower front facade was last changed in the 1950s. (1976)