Old First National Bank Building

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Old First National Bank Building in Van Zandt County. Now settle in, because even a building that looks like it's just standing there minding its business has a story worth telling. This one goes back to 1909, when two men, Virgil Henson and W.

A. Covin, put up a structure in Edgewood that was meant to hold money and the dreams that tend to follow it. Inside those walls, a man named J.

P. Downs had started something called the First State Bank of Edgewood. Started it, got it going, and in time that bank grew into something bigger, something with a federal ring to its name: the First National Bank.

Now that's the kind of quiet ambition this part of Texas was built on. Then came 1918, and somebody looked up at that building and said, you know what this place needs? A second floor.

So they added one, and just like that, the directors had a meeting room and the Masonic Lodge had a home above the banking floor. Two kinds of business, stacked neatly on top of each other. By 1929, the Farmers and Merchants State Bank had merged right into the First National, and the roster of directors at that moment reads like a roll call of Van Zandt County ambition: N.

L. Cheatham, J. E.

Humphries, J. H. Jones, Lee Joyner, R.

M. Millsaps, W. H.

Pickens Sr., W. A. Presley, R.

E. Slaughter, and G. M.

Youngblood. Nine names. Nine men sitting upstairs in that second-floor room, deciding things.

The bank held on through the decades, but by 1959 it had moved on to newer quarters, leaving the old building to find a new purpose. And it did. It became a cafe.

A place that once safeguarded the county's money ended up feeding the county's people. That's not a bad second act for a building that's been standin' since 1909.

What the marker says

Built by Virgil Henson (1882-1967) and W. A. Covin (1871--1946) in 1909, this structure housed the First State Bank of Edgewood. Started by J. P. Downs (1879-1932), it later became the First National Bank. In 1918 a second floor was added, providing meeting space for the directors and a Masonic Lodge. In 1929 the Farmers and Merchants State Bank merged with First National. Directors at the time included N. L. Cheatham, J. E. Humphries, J. H. Jones, Lee Joyner, R. M. Millsaps, W. H. Pickens, Sr., W. A. Presley, R. E. Slaughter, and G. M. Youngblood. The bank moved in 1959 and the building later housed a cafe. (1980)