Former Site of Midland National Bank
Midland, Midland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in Odessa on August 22, 1902, as Odessa National Bank, this institution began with an initial capital of $25,000. In June 1903 the shareholders voted to move the bank to Midland and rename it Midland National Bank. Bank offices were set up at this site in the Llano hotel. Built in 1890, the two-story wooden hotel building was a gathering place for ranchers and businessmen. The bank occupied the lower floor of the hotel until 1909, when the structure, along with others in the downtown area, was destroyed by fire. The hotel was rebuilt on the same site, and the bank continued to lease office space. By 1927 the principal business of the bank had shifted from agriculture to the emerging oil industry. A new three-story bank building was erected at the corner of Texas and Big Spring streets in 1953, and a nine-story tower was added in 1957. Midland National and the Bank of the Southwest merged in 1968. In 1976 the bank moved to a new fourteen-story structure at 500 W. Texas. The name of the bank was changed to First City National Bank of Midland in 1983.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered in Odessa in 1902 as the Odessa National Bank, this institution moved to Midland in 1903 and took the name Midland National Bank, setting up shop in the two-story wooden Llano Hotel, a gathering place for ranchers and businessmen. Fire destroyed the building in 1909, but the rebuilt hotel again housed the bank, whose business shifted from agriculture to oil by 1927. Through new buildings, a 1968 merger, and a 1983 renaming, the bank followed Midland's rise from a ranching town to a center of the oil economy.
Why it matters
The bank's evolution charts Midland's transformation from a cattle-country outpost into the financial hub of the Permian Basin oil industry.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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