Ennis National Bank

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it the way Duane tells it. Now picture Ennis, Texas, in 1883. The town is young, the ambition is not.

That is the year somebody decided this place needed a real bank, not just a strongbox under a floorboard, but an actual Ennis National Bank, with a proper president and everything. That man was Joseph Baldridge, a businessman who apparently did not think small. And here is where it gets interesting.

The same year the bank was established, 1883, they put up a building to house it. Not a temporary arrangement, not a leased-out back room. A purpose-built structure with Classical Revival architecture, a corner turret, a corbeled brick parapet, and an original cast iron storefront.

In 1883. Out here on the Texas prairie. Somebody had a vision, and somebody had a budget to match.

The bank occupied the first floor, as a bank ought to. The second story, meanwhile, was leased out for offices; because even in 1883, a smart building earns its keep on every floor. That arrangement held for thirty-four years.

Then, in 1917, a new facility was built, and the bank moved on. But the building? The building stayed.

And since that time, numerous businesses have come and gone through those cast iron doors, each one borrowing a little dignity from those corbeled bricks and that corner turret. Some structures outlast every purpose they were ever built for. This one has been doing it for well over a century, and it is still standing in Ennis to prove it.

What the marker says

This structure was built in 1883 to house the Ennis National Bank, which was established the same year, with businessman Joseph Baldridge as its first president. Until 1917, when a new facility was built, the bank occupied the first floor, while the second story was leased for offices. Since that time, numerous businesses have occupied the Classical Revival building, which features a corner turret, corbeled brick parapet, and the original cast iron storefront.