First National Bank Building
Jayton, Kent County, Texas
Marker Inscription
An excellent example of early 20th century Classical Revival style, the First National Bank of Jayton was erected about 1912 by descendants of early Kent County pioneers. Classical features of the edifice, such as the polished granite Ionic columns, bull's eye windows, quoins, and the unusual recessed entry portico, are typical of the favored imagery of stability and order among banks of the period. The domed skylight is a device often employed by the building's architect, Rockwell H. Stuckey (1855-1936). The bank closed in the 1930s; the building continues to serve the community as a financial institution, many of its personnel descendants of bank founders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Raised about 1912 by descendants of Kent County's pioneer families, the First National Bank of Jayton is a polished exercise in Classical Revival style, built to project the stability a bank wanted its customers to feel. Granite Ionic columns, bull's-eye windows, quoins, and a recessed entry portico crown the work of architect Rockwell H. Stuckey, whose favored domed skylight lit the interior. Though the bank itself failed in the 1930s, the building has served the community as a financial institution ever since, often staffed by descendants of its founders.
Why it matters
The bank's confident classical architecture embodies the optimism of small-town Texas at the turn of the century, when new towns dressed their institutions in the imagery of permanence and order.
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Related people
- · Rockwell H. Stuckey
Themes & tags
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