Today the building is home to the Wheatland County Senior Citizens Center. The tipoffs that this was once a bank are the obvious ones - an angled corner entrance facing the major downtown street, a corner lot, always prized by bankers (and land speculators who, because of this, were able to charge a premium price for corner lots) and the Greek style portico over the entrance, supported by a pair of Ionic columns.
The building began to arise from the ground in early march of 1909. By early April concrete forms were under construction. Fixtures for the bank arrived late August. By mid January of 1910 the building was sufficiently complete to host a meeting of the board of directors in the boardroom. The upstairs, which was divided into offices, was completed in March of 1910. By this time the Musselsheil Valley National Bank, chartered in 1908, was barely a year old, opening its doors for the first time on
November, 11 1908.
EXCAVATION BEGINS
Musselsheil Valley National Bank Starts on Their Basement
Excavation work has begun on the basement for the Musselshell Valley National bank. The basement will contain the boiler and coal rooms for the heating plant and will be 24 x 28.
This is the first step taken towards building the new bank which when completed will be one of the finest bank buildings in this section of the state.
From the Harlowton News., March 05, 1909
Designed by architect R. R. Lea, the bank was built of locally quarried sandstone, as was essentially all of downtown Harlowton. In June of 1907 a fire destroyed almost the entirety of the village of Harlowton, reportedly leaving only two buildings standing. As a result easily and cheaply accessible sandstone became the building material of choice thereafter in the town.
On June 22, 1910, essentially in conjunction with the completion of their new bank building, the bank changed its name to the
First National Bank of Harlowton.
At a special meeting of the stockholders of the Musselshell Valley National Bank, held June 22nd, it was voted and carried that the name of the institution be changed to The First National Bank. Authority granting the change of name has been received from the comptroller of currency.
From the Fergus County Argus, July 08, 1910
The ad on the right was placed on page 3 of the June 11, 1909 issue of the
Harlowton News. It appears that, by 1924, the bank was in receivership.
The black & white pen and ink drawing accompanying was drawn not by R.R. Lea, but by another architect, Mr. A. J. Dreyer. It may well represent the incarnation of the building he envisioned upon submitting architectural drawings. It was somewhat more elaborate than the building we see today.