The Helena Independent Record ran this article, excerpts from which are below, about the bank and its restoration on October 22, 2012.
Though it survived an earlier recession in the 1920s, the Dayton State Bank couldn't make it through the '30s and closed its doors in 1934. Since then it has been used primarily for storage by its various owners and allowed to decay. The sole surviving example of Egyptian Revival architecture in Montana, it was bought 1n 1990 by Jim Lekander for $25,000. He began restoring the bank building to use in conjunction with his marina business.
DAYTON -- To say the 99-year-old concrete building sticks out like a sore thumb in this small community of 86 residents on the west shore of Flathead Lake does a disservice to the building.
What it does, is stick out like a rare-to-Montana example of Egyptian revival architecture amid a sea of dry-docked sailboats.
Now, it’ll continue to stick out for a long time.
Why the old Dayton State Bank building – with its 17 1/2-foot ceilings, distinctive concrete columns out front, and 1930s-era earthquake-caused foundation-to-ceiling crack in one wall inside – wound up in the hands of an Army recruiter stationed in Missoula decades ago, Jim Lekander has no idea...
...The bank was started soon after the Flathead Indian Reservation was opened to homesteaders, Jiusto reported, by Clifford B. Harris, who had served as president of banks in Kalispell and Polson.
It was a boom time in Montana, which saw its number of banks surge from 252 in 1910 to 428 in 1920. On the Fourth of July, 1913, Harris proudly displayed plans for the new building that would house the Dayton State Bank.
After construction had started, but before the summer was over, the bank had been sold to F.A. Hacker and H.F. Dwelle. Just four months after moving into its new home – the concrete building the biweekly Dayton Leader termed “a beaut” – the bank was sold again, to W.N. Noffsinger, general manager of the Somers Lumber Company and founder of the Somers State Bank.
The boom was followed by a drought-induced bust that saw 214 Montana banks close between 1920-26. The Dayton State Bank survived that, but not the Great Depression – although it still had assets when it closed for good in 1934, according to Lekander.
“They told me this was the only example of Egyptian revival architecture left in Montana,” says Jim Lekander, referring to his conversation with the folks at the National Register of Historic Places while attempting to get the building listed. Earlier this month, Lekander was informed that his old Dayton State Bank building had been officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
From the Helena Independent Record