Old Ward County Bank

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Ward County, along the Pecos River valley, a man named C. E.

Pierce had a vision. He believed in irrigated agricultural lands for that dry stretch of Texas, believed in it enough to put his money where his mouth was. In 1901, he had a building constructed to house Ward County's very first bank.

Red sandstone pulled right out of the nearby Barstow Quarry. Romanesque revival influences in the architecture, and if you look close, a corner entrance that still catches the eye to this day. Now that's a building with some confidence in its bones.

But here's where the story turns, the way stories out in this country have a habit of doing. The bank was never incorporated. Never.

And the crops, well, the crops did not cooperate. Area crop failures hit hard, and the bank lost money. By 1907, it was over.

The doors closed on Ward County's first bank, just six years after C. E. Pierce had that proud red sandstone building raised up from the desert floor.

The vision was real. The building was real. The quarry stone still stands.

It's the kind of story that reminds you how thin the line is between a legacy and a lesson, and sometimes, out here in West Texas, it's the same thing.

What the marker says

C. E. Pierce, an early advocate of irrigated agricultural lands for the Pecos River valley, had this building constructed in 1901 to house Ward County's first bank. Never incorporated, the bank lost money due to area crop failures and closed in 1907. Constructed of red sandstone from the nearby Barstow Quarry, the building exhibits influences of the Romanesque revival style and features an interesting corner entrance. (Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1962.)