First National Bank Building
Fort Stockton, Pecos County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built in 1912, this structure originally housed the First National Bank of Fort Stockton. Established two years earlier, the bank failed during the years of the great depression. In 1935 the building was purchased by the Pecos County State Bank. Chartered in 1928, the financial institution was located here until 1960. The structure exhibits Neo-Classical styling and features massive doric columns that support an elaborate pediment. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1983.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Completed in 1912, this Neo-Classical building with massive Doric columns and an ornate pediment housed the First National Bank of Fort Stockton until the Great Depression drove it under. In 1935 the Pecos County State Bank took over the premises, keeping the corner a center of West Texas finance until 1960. Its temple-front styling was a deliberate architectural promise of stability in a frontier economy.
Why it matters
The bank's rise, failure, and reincarnation trace the boom-and-bust rhythm of small-town commerce through the Depression that reshaped American banking.
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Related events
- · Great Depression
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
O. W. Williams
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Harvard-trained lawyer Oscar Waldo Williams came to Texas in 1876 seeking a drier climate and threw himself into the opening of the West Texas frontier, surveying newly settled lands and serving as Pecos County's deputy surveyor and later county judge. From an office he built in Fort Stockton around 1915, he became an authority on land law and water rights and turned his eye to the region's emerging oil and gas leases. A tireless observer, he also wrote widely on the history, folklore, and natural history of the Southwest.
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