Del Rio Bank & Trust

The bank's best-known rescue is not a bank. The Cassinelli Gin House was built by Italian stonemason Giovanni Batista Cassinelli, who bought the land in 1903 and had it done by 1908, with a quarry-faced limestone ground floor and a handmade brick upper story. The gin apparently failed, and the upstairs hosted receptions and dances from about 1909 into the late 1920s. After years of sheriff's sales, vacancy and fire damage, the bank, led by its president S. W. Cauthorn, bought and restored it.

What the plaque says

Del Rio Bank & Trust One of the county's oldest and most influential institutions is the Del Rio Bank and Trust, which is one year older than the city government of Del Rio. The bank organized on August 10, 1910. The original shareholders of the bank and trust purchased 750 shares at $100 per share. Those shareholders consisted of several of the most prominent members of the community and the southwest Texas ranching and entrepreneurial communities, including John Nance Garner, Vice President of the U.S. Under President Franklin Roosevelt. The original location was in the heart of the town's original business district, moving in 1939 to a larger facility only a block away on south main. Drive-thru banking was added in 1957 and was the first bank in Del Rio to have this convenience. In the summer of 1976, the Del Rio bank and trust moved to its current location on Veterans Blvd. The new facility had double the square footage as well as a larger drive-thru. In addition to serving the area as a financial institution, the Del Rio bank and trust has assisted the community in many fashions. It has awarded scholarships and supported many local programs. The bank lends out their facilities to local clubs and community training classes. It has also adopted Greenwood Park, covers the cleaning and maintenance costs and is responsible for the restoration and preservation of the Cassinelli Gin House, one of Del Rio's few national register sites. Almost consecutively owned by community members, the Del Rio Bank and Trust has been a part of the foundation of the Del Rio community for over a century. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe Creek — 1.2 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 1.6 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Val Verde Winery — 2.0 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 8.2 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Greater Mount Olive Baptist Church — 0.3 mi
• Paul Kallinger — 0.4 mi
• The Carter Family in Del Rio — 0.4 mi
• Operation Brass Knob — 0.5 mi