HistoricSiteMarkers
Progressive & Modern Era

First State Bank Building

Snyder, Scurry County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Erected 1907-08 on site where trail of U.S. Cavalry Gen. Ranald MacKenzie ran parallel to Deep Creek. Built for First State Bank & Trust Co., early day cattlemen and ranchers bank; closed during 1931 Depression year. Has since housed many firms including local newspaper (when it was "Times Building"). Now used as office building. Exterior of Ionic Greek columned structure is same as when first constructed. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1967.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Built in 1907-08 beside Deep Creek, where the trail of Gen. Ranald Mackenzie's U.S. Cavalry had once run, this Snyder landmark housed the First State Bank & Trust Co., an early bank serving West Texas cattlemen and ranchers. It closed during the depression year of 1931 and afterward sheltered many tenants, including the local newspaper. Its Ionic-columned Greek Revival exterior survives unchanged from the day it was built.

Why it matters

The building links the cavalry campaigns that opened West Texas to the cattle economy and frontier banking that followed, a compressed timeline from military conquest to commercial settlement.

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Related people

  • · Ranald Mackenzie

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionIndustry & InventionFrontier HistoryLandmark

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