An 1890 Bank Building

The bank joined a square that already had a newspaper and a federal court. J. W. Graves had started the Graham Leader in 1876, and J. E. Dowdle ran a gristmill and sawmill with a cotton gin; there were also a brick kiln, two hotels and several stores. In 1879 Dr. J. E. Ryus built a two-story brick building on the west side of the square, with his drugstore below and the Federal District Court upstairs. The court moved to Abilene in 1896. Graham counted 576 people in 1880, 667 in 1890 and 878 in 1900.

What the plaque says

Irish quarrymen mined stone for this Victorian structure on Bower's Hill (2 mi. N), near home of bank director, L. J. Bower. With its fine quality masonry and woodwork, the bank building added dignity to the Courthouse Square. An abstract firm and land office occupied the upper floor. After drought in its north Texas and Indian Territory trade areas, the bank failed in 1895. In 1906 W. I. Tidwell and son bought the property for a retail store. It was sold to W. A. Corbett in 1933 and to Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Roach in 1975. The lower front facade was last changed in the 1950s. (1976)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Post Office Museum and Art Center — steps away
  Graham's 1936 Art Moderne post office, with a New Deal mural by Alexandre Hogue inside, now the free museum of Young County in the town where the Texas cattle raisers first organized.
• Fort Belknap — 9.2 mi
  The 1851 northern anchor of the first Texas frontier forts, on the Brazos below Newcastle, a Butterfield stop and the post beside the Brazos Reservation until its people were driven out in 1859.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 27 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• Cattle Raisers Association Oak — steps away
• Site of Third County Courthouse — steps away
• Morrison Funeral Home — steps away
• First National Bank in Graham — steps away