Offenhauser Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Offenhauser Building in Bowie County. Now, every great city has a first. A first mayor, a first school, a first church.

But Texarkana's first brick structure, that's something worth slowing down for. Built about 1879, this building went up for First National Bank, and it rose out of the ground at a time when most everything around it was wood and wishful thinking. Brick meant permanence.

Brick meant somebody believed this place was going to last. Up on the second floor, the Kelsey and Offenhauser Insurance Agency set up shop, and that is where our story gets its name. In 1883, a pioneer businessman by the name of F.

W. Offenhauser sat down and wrote his very first insurance policy. Right there.

In that building. Now, that might not sound like a thunderclap moment, but consider what followed. That one policy, the first of many, launched a career that would make Offenhauser a leading agent across both Texas and Arkansas.

The whole arc of it started in one room, above a bank, in the first brick building Texarkana ever had. Some things, it turns out, are built to last, and some people just know it before anyone else does.

What the marker says

First brick structure in Texarkana, built about 1879 for First National Bank. On second floor was Kelsey & Offenhauser Insurance Agency. Here in 1883, pioneer businessman F. W. Offenahuser, later a leading agent in Texas and Arkansas, wrote his first insurance policy. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965