# Old Crawford County Bank Building - Van Buren, Arkansas



## trismegistus (Dec 11, 2021)

​It goes without saying that I wouldn't have made an effort to create a thread about this building if there was a substantial amount of information available on the structure in the mainstream historical realm.  Suffice it to say there's almost _nothing_ to be found about this structure, not even a wikipedia entry (save for an entry on the town's historic district which is worth noting as it seems to be one of the oldest cities west of the mississippi in the western narratives).  The only bits and bobs I could scratch up certainly leave me wondering what exactly the hell this place was.



> This colorful and dramatic former bank stands out on Van Buren’s Main Street, which can boast many handsome brick and stone-trimmed buildings. The highly textured three-story bank is constructed of red and brown brick and embellished with terra-cotta and slate. First- and second-story windows are segmental-arched, and the canted corner entrance retains the original stained glass fanlight over the door. *The third story, added in 1905 for the Masons until they could complete their own building*, is the most elaborately decorated, with large round-arched windows separated by patterned columns topped with blue metal cones, and the slate tiles of the spandrels between the windows painted in blues and mauves. The capstone of the building is its circular third-floor corner tower surmounted by a blue metal-covered cone rising above the main roof. R. B. Allen, building contractor for the bank, used bricks made with a pressure system to give them a smooth, dense texture that required less mortar. Banking operations ceased following the crash of October 1929; since then the building has housed several different businesses.​



So the only "record" of the structure's history is when freemasons built the _third floor, _nothing to say of the original two stories. That said, I could only find one photo of it from the old days, and as you can see above if we believe the story given by the masons it would have been taken after the third story was installed - after 1905.  And let's not get confused here - this town wasn't just inhabited by freemasons, it was inhabited by *the freemason*

**​


> One of the oldest buildings in Arkansas, the log schoolhouse on the southwest portion of the courthouse grounds was built circa 1820. *It was used by Albert Pike*, a schoolteacher from the northeast who moved to western Arkansas in 1833. Pike did not teach at the school long before moving to Little Rock, where he became involved in politics, law, and the _Arkansas Gazette_. Pike would go on to become a noted poet and writer in addition to serving as a general for the Confederate States of America, most notably serving at the Battle of Pea Ridge. He also served the Freemasons as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction and established lodges throughout the South following the war. Pike later refused an honorary degree from Harvard University, a school he had been accepted to but elected to become a teacher rather than attend.​



There have been a few mentions of Pike on the site in the past, one can find those threads here:

SH Archive - Tartaria mentioned in Freemason Manual
SH Archive - Confederate Monuments

So here we have an incredibly ornate and incredible Victorian/Roman revival/rococo/whatever nonsense in a tiny little town that happens to be full of master masons, with a history that only discusses the completion of the third floor.  We have no construction photos, no information on its original builders, no photos of the structure standing previous to 1905.  This is certainly not the most impressive town like this in the state - as Eureka Springs is about 100 miles north as the crow flies - but the structure stands out even among the other buildings in town said to have been built around then.

Unfortunately in 2021 it appears to be abandoned.  I found a few articles from 7-8 years ago where they have tried to put some businesses in there, but with no success as I drove by it a few days ago and it is quite empty.  

So what are we looking at here in the Arkansas river valley?


More entries on Arkansas:
Monte Ne - An Arkansan Retreat in Ruins
Giant stone cut blocks in Northwest Arkansas
The Crescent Hotel, 1886: Eureka Springs, AR
Subaico Abbey in Logan County, Arkansas: A Diamond in the Rough.


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## Jd755 (Dec 11, 2021)

A few more bits.

1905 History of Crawford County Kansas



> CHAPTER V.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



1879 Van Buren Press: The History of Crawford County Arkansas in Newspapers Free to read if one has the Kindle app

Might be in the wrong town but this looks exceedingly similar but not as ornate a bank. Girard




And it seems to me to be contemporary with this school building.


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## trismegistus (Dec 11, 2021)

kd-755 said:


> A few more bits.
> 
> 1905 History of Crawford County Kansas
> 
> ...



All of this (save for the book link) is in a somewhat nearby area of southern Kansas/Missouri, and due to the apparently complete lack of imagination in naming - also called Crawford county.  The first national bank in Girard bears some resemblance to the reference structure, though more as a cheap mirage rather than a duplicate.  Not to mention there is also a First National Bank building in Van Buren, as well.



​Similar issues here - only a passing mention of this structure existing, no additional information, and this one has the misfortune of not standing today, or any information on when it was torn down and replaced.  

The book you posted has some hidden history implications, to be sure.



kd-755 said:


> 1879 Van Buren Press: The History of Crawford County Arkansas in Newspapers Free to read if one has the Kindle app





> I began my family research in 1996 and ran into many “road blocks” due to the lack of records for the county.* The court house had been destroyed* during the Civil War following the Battle of Prairie Grove on December 7, 1862.
> 
> *Once again in 1877, the court house was destroyed by fire*. All court records were destroyed again and much angst was endured among the citizens of Crawford County over Land Records, Tax Records and all of records of great importance.


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## Jd755 (Dec 11, 2021)

Oh dear. Seems US0fA has the same multiple version naming affliction of UK. Sorry about that. 
What was 7th st called prior to 7th?


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## trismegistus (Dec 11, 2021)

kd-755 said:


> Oh dear. Seems US0fA has the same multiple version naming affliction of UK



It gets worse. 

Literally on the other side of the Arkansas river from Van Buren is Fort Smith.  They also have a first national bank built in the early 20th century.






> In 1888, the bank made two historic moves. It had outgrown the original small frame building, located on what is now the corner of Garrison Avenue and Court Streets, and occupied a new brick building at Sixth and Garrison. *Following the failure of another area bank which had once been named "First National,*" the National Bank of Western Arkansas changed its name to the First National Bank of Fort Smith.​



I'm assuming the aforementioned First National Bank was the one in Van Buren, but that is only an assumption.
​How many banks did this area need, exactly?


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## asatiger1966 (Dec 11, 2021)

trismegistus said:


> View attachment 14777
> View attachment 14778View attachment 14779View attachment 14780
> View attachment 14781
> ​It goes without saying that I wouldn't have made an effort to create a thread about this building if there was a substantial amount of information available on the structure in the mainstream historical realm.  Suffice it to say there's almost _nothing_ to be found about this structure, not even a wikipedia entry (save for an entry on the town's historic district which is worth noting as it seems to be one of the oldest cities west of the mississippi in the western narratives).  The only bits and bobs I could scratch up certainly leave me wondering what exactly the hell this place was.
> ...



What year was the street scene photographed?


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## trismegistus (Dec 11, 2021)

asatiger1966 said:


> What year was the street scene photographed?


It came from this link 

A Brief Pictorial of Van Buren, Arkansas


> This picture is from around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The old Crawford County Bank building on the right.



No explicit date was given. I’m assuming sometime between 1905-1910 if the mainstream timeline is to be believed.


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## Jd755 (Dec 11, 2021)

kd-755 said:


> What was 7th st called prior to 7th?


Any idea?
No bank on this 1888 plan. *http://whitsettandwall.com/Van Buren/Van Buren Photos/1888 Van Buren Overhead Drawing.png*


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## xandermcargyle (Dec 11, 2021)

Reminds me of the Old Red Courthouse in Dallas, which was designed by a man from Arkansas, according to Wikipedia.


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## Jd755 (Dec 12, 2021)

Struggling to find the building in the earliest insurance maps listed here hence my enquiry into the naming of 7th street. This renaming using numbers not names seems to have swept across US cities in a wave so either its a deliberate effort to get people to forget actual once living people involved in the settling of the land (As and aside why does land need settling? To my mind land unsettled is wild natural or is constantly shaking and moving but what do I know!) or it was deemed fashionable at the time.

Edit o add
Nor on this 1888 map either.


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## Broken Agate (Dec 15, 2021)

I'm sure that, if we did find any information on this building, it would read exactly like all the other fairy tale narratives: the city held a contest to see which architect could design the nicest-ever bank, and so-and-so won. A year or two later, the bank was up and running. Money was no problem, because the city was practically swimming in it, so they made the bank as fancy as they could, complete with the one feature that every bank ought to have: a pointy tower covered in "blue metal."  What kind of metal is blue? Steel can have a blueish appearance, is it made of steel? Why doesn't the article simply say what kind of metal it is? Why metal, when shingles would have been easier to work with and not as heavy? I wonder what those crazy Masons were doing, that they needed a metal cone on top of their building. 

The log cabin story is another one that we see repeated in many parts of America. "Here's the first log cabin ever built in this city/town/county/state. It was occupied by [fill-in the blank] and has survived to this very day." What are the chances of such a primitive structure still being around two hundred or more years after it was built? WHY would anyone preserve it? There would be no reason whatsoever to hang onto something so cheap and crappy, while at the same time destroying millions of huge, stunningly beautiful buildings that easily could have lasted another hundred years.

 We are living on a gigantic stage set where nothing is real, and the props are destroyed to make way for the next scene.


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## trismegistus (Dec 15, 2021)

Broken Agate said:


> The log cabin story is another one that we see repeated in many parts of America. "Here's the first log cabin ever built in this city/town/county/state. It was occupied by [fill-in the blank] and has survived to this very day."



You drive around Arkansas long enough and you'll find that no less than 4-5 cities claim to be the birthplace of Bill Clinton .  Pike is no different - plenty of streets named after him and statues all over the place.

I guess the larger meta question in this series of structures/ruins I've come across in this state is - why did the Freemasons spend so much of their time and effort here?  The seclusion? The stunning nature? Plenty of spots between the Atlantic ocean and the Mississippi to do the same so why come out this far?  They say just on the other side of the Arkansas river from this town was pure "Indian" land.  Were these also "Indian" buildings?


kd-755 said:


> What was 7th st called prior to 7th?



According to that Sanborn firemap you found, it used to be called Joseph.


​As you can see - the railroad matches.  It also confirms _something_ was there as of 1886, however ironically it isn't the bank which is two buildings down (in front of the Negro shanty ).


kd-755 said:


> Nor on this 1888 map either.



​This map seems to corroborate the story that the building previously existed as a two story structure prior to 1905, it is the one outlined in red.

However the one with a blue circle around it is in what was an empty lot (with the word _bank_ written in there, in another strange annoying twist) two years prior in the Sanborn map.

​So this structure was - according to the story - built in one year across the street from the bank.

Last edit:
The earliest it’s listed as a bank is 1892

​Last last edit:

For those who may not know what that silly acronym is inhabiting the bank building, this is the I.O.O.F


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