Site of First Bank in La Feria

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm passin' it along just as it reads. Now, every town worth its salt has a story about its first bank, and La Feria, down in Cameron County, is no different. The building you're lookin' at, or at least the site of it, is where the Cameron County Bank of La Feria set up shop.

This community's very first bank, and it moved in soon after it was founded in 1912. The structure itself was put up by W.A. Strickland, a contractor who was well-known in these parts.

That right there tells you something about the ambition of what was bein' built. Not just a building. A foundation for a whole town's financial life.

Now, it started out as a private institution, but 1913 came around and the state of Texas handed it a charter. Official. Legitimate.

The real thing. The man behind it all was Bailey H. Dunlap, born in Illinois in 1886.

He founded this bank and, as if that weren't enough, La Feria turned around and made him its first mayor in 1915. The town knew who was investin' in its future. Then 1925 rolled in, and the bank got rechartered, this time as the First National Bank of La Feria.

A new name, a bigger standing. And two years after that, in 1927, the bank picked up and moved to new quarters. Left this old building behind.

Other businesses moved in after that, kept the walls busy, kept the address alive. But the first chapter, the one that mattered most, had already been written right here.

What the marker says

The Cameron County Bank of La Feria, this community's first bank, occupied this structure soon after it was founded in 1912. The building was erected by W.A. Strickland, a well-known contractor here. Organized as a private institution, the bank received a state charter in 1913. Its founder was Illinois-born Bailey H. Dunlap (1886-1957), who served as first mayor of La Feria in 1915. The bank was rechartered as the First National Bank of La Feria in 1925. After it moved to new quarters in 1927, this building was occupied by other businesses. (1975)