Old First National Bank of Navasota

Duane's take

The way the marker in Navasota, Grimes County tells it, here's what went on with this particular piece of Texas ground. James Davern, a man who wore three hats at once, local architect, contractor, and stonemason, teamed up with his brother-in-law C. C.

Camp, and together those two put up a commercial edifice right here in the 1880s. Now, stone rubble covered in cement may not sound like the stuff of legend, but you give a building enough time and enough tenants, and it starts to accumulate a story all its own. Then along came the 1890s, and with them the First National Bank of Navasota taking ownership of the place.

The bank didn't just move in, it dressed the building up, Renaissance Revival detailing, the whole fashion-conscious treatment. That bank held the address all the way until 1952, which is no small run for one institution in one building. But here is where it gets interesting.

Before the bank, after the bank, and maybe somewhere in between, this building wasn't sitting idle waiting on just one purpose. It housed a hotel. It housed offices.

A telephone company set up shop inside those cement-covered walls. And a variety of stores came and went across the years. James Davern and C.

C. Camp built one building in the 1880s, and somehow, between them, they built a whole little world inside it.

What the marker says

Local architect, contractor and stonemason James Davern and his brother-in-law C. C. Camp built this commercial edifice in the 1880s. Constructed of cement-covered stone rubble, it was remodeled with Renaissance Revival detailing in the 1890s, during the ownership of the First National Bank of Navasota. Occupied by the bank until 1952, it has also housed a hotel, offices, a telephone company, and a variety of stores. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1981