Planters State Bank

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Before there was a bank on this corner in Harlingen, there was a barber shop. Belonged to a man named Mack Crenshaw, a Harlingen pioneer, and for a time that little spot was just a place where folks came in, sat down, and got a haircut.

Then 1917 rolled around, and the land was deeded to the Planters State Bank. Just like that, the clippers gave way to ledgers. The bank built its structure right there on the site, and the owners didn't let a single floor go to waste.

The upper floors they leased out as office space, putting that building to work from top to bottom. Now, the Planters State Bank eventually closed, as banks sometimes do, but the building didn't sit idle for long. The Valley State Bank moved in and called it home from 1924 until 1927.

Two years after that transition began, the building changed hands in purpose again, and from 1927 all the way until 1965, the Cameron County Irrigation District kept its offices right there inside those same walls. Barber to bank to bank again to irrigation district. That building just kept on going, kept on serving, kept finding new reasons to matter.

And that, right there, is what Harlingen's business history looks like when it decides to stand in one place.

What the marker says

Prior to construction of the Planters State Bank building, a barber shop owned by Harlingen pioneer Mack Crenshaw was located at this site. In 1917, the land was deeded to the Planters State Bank. The owners of the bank leased the upper floors of the structure as office space. After the Planters State Bank closed, this building served as the home of the Valley State Bank from 1924 until 1927. From that year until 1965, the Cameron County Irrigation District located its offices in this building, which has been an important element in Harlingen's business history.