In June 1904, Portland partners R. W. Hoyt, R. L. Durham, J. Frank Watson, George W. Hoyt, and S. C. Catching formed the Dallas National Bank with $25,000 in capital to compete with the Dallas City Bank. In September 1904, the partners leased the location of the former Ellis & Keyt grocery store, which was in the Crider Building for bank operations. The bank opened in 1905 while waiting for their office furniture to arrive. Eugene Hayter, formerly with the Dallas City Bank, was the first cashier.
In 1911, the bank built a new two-story brick building at the corner of Main and Court Streets to house the growing bank as well as other businesses. At street level, the building had five separate storefronts, one on Main Street, three on Court Street, and the bank itself, which had a corner entrance fronting both streets with a Court street address.
There were two stairwells to access the second floor, one from each street, with hallways that were conjoined. The second floor contained several offices. Second-story offices were very common for professionals of this era such as doctors, dentists, attorneys, and engineers.
Once completed, the building filled quickly with businesses eager to avail themselves of the “striking gilded signs announcing the firms located there” and the “cluster lighting, of the type in use in the most progressive cities.” First tenants include the Itemizer newspaper office and printing plant in the Main Street storefront, and Oregon Power Company, M. D. Ellis Drug Store, and the Dallas Bakery (later Star Bakery) on the Court Street side. The Dallas National Bank was the last to move into their corner location.
City attorney Walter L. Tooze Jr. was the first to move into an office on the second floor, followed by Dr. L. A. Bollman and Dr. V. C. Staats. Dr. M. Hayter, Dentist, followed shortly after, as did a host of attorneys.
By 1939, the Sanborn Fire Insurance map indicates that the space once occupied by the bank was by then a liquor store. The 506 Main Street storefront, former location of the Itemizer, was combined with the 605 Court Street storefront (previous location of the Oregon Power Company) and was now labelled Store. A drugstore remained at 607 Court, but the bakery at 609 Court was gone, and that space was now also labelled Store. (The 609 Court storefront is now the location of Tony’s Place tavern.)
Eventually, as part of a conversion to the Dallas Pharmacy, three of the storefronts were combined into one space, with the former bank entrance in the corner of Main and Court serving as the main door. The other two entrances were covered over. These three spaces are now the location of the World Gym. Of the two remaining Court Street storefronts, one is occupied by a new business as of 2025, and the other houses the aforementioned Tony’s Place. The second floor, which once bustled with doctors, attorneys, and other professionals, has been converted to apartments.
Regarding its architecture, as the Victorian Era was winding down post-1900, during a relatively brief period, several significant commercial buildings were constructed in downtown Dallas, in a new, more modern and restrained fashion. All of them had common features such as tan-colored common bond brick used in their facades, symmetrically spaced, rectangular double-hung windows with modest but artful adornment, and flat roofs with straight cornices, details which combined to produce buildings exhibiting great strength in their street presence. Buildings in this category include the 1912 Carnegie Building – note the tan brick in it quoins (191 SW Court), the 1909 Gail Hotel Annex (186 SW Court) and the c. 1910 Dallas City Bank building (northwest corner of Main and Mill – since demolished).
The Dallas National Bank building, (and its near twin, the Dallas City Bank building a block away), was a poster child for this new, early 20th century commercial style. The second floor exhibits its original architectural features to include the longitudinal, rather restrained, style of its cornice, only mildly decorated by a long course of subtle dentil molding. The cornices above the windows offer a slight suggestion of stylized pediments laid into the bricks. Over the brick column entrances, projecting porticos add a sense of strength and drama to the building that is unique from the buildings of an earlier era.
In contrast to the originality of the second floor, many of this building’s classic, first-floor architectural features, even the strong porticos, have been subdued by various alterations and modernizations. Nonetheless, many of the building’s original elements remain intact, though hidden.
KEY REFERENCES:
- Polk County Observer, 1904 – 1917
- Polk County Itemizer, 1904 – 1917
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps