Former Bank Building of Giddings & Giddings

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this one. Now, some buildings just stand there. Others carry a story in every brick.

The old bank building in Brenham, Washington County, is the second kind. It started as a private firm, Brenham's very first bank, founded in 1866 by a pair of lawyer-brothers named J. D. and D.

C. Giddings. Brothers going into business together is either the best idea or the worst idea a family ever has.

These two built something that lasted. The building itself went up in 1872, purpose-built for the bank, solid and meant to say something to the town. But here's where it gets interesting.

The bank didn't have that building all to itself. Up on the third floor, the Brenham Chapter No. 5 of the Royal Arch Masons claimed their space. So you had your banking on the lower floors and your ancient fraternal order meeting above.

Whatever business was conducted in that building, it was conducted under watchful eyes, one way or another. The bank kept its doors open through Reconstruction, through boom times and lean times, through two world wars. Then, in 1945, it closed.

Nearly eight decades of Brenham's financial life, begun by two brothers with law degrees and a vision, ended quietly. The building remained. And the building, as buildings sometimes do, outlasted everything else.

What the marker says

A private firm; Brenham's first bank, founded 1866 by lawyer-brothers J. D. and D. C. Giddings. This building was erected 1872 for bank, with Brenham Chapter No. 5, Royal Arch Masons, owning third floor. Bank closed in 1945.