The first building on this site was the Day House, built at Reeds fort in 1883. In the summer of 1886 it was moved down to this location on Main Street and was sold to Barnes & Woodman in 1896. Not long after, the property was sold to John Vrooman, editor of the Mineral County Argus newspaper, later to become the Fergus County Argus. The house was demolished and replaced by a rough stone building to serve as home of the Fergus County Argus.
In 1912, as Vrooman retired and the newspaper was sold, the Argus Building was purchased by the State Bank of Lewistown and in 1913, according to a
Fergus County Democrat article of June 24, 1913, the bank was issued a permit by the town to remodel the building. A later article indicated that the "remodelling" was progressing nicely. Unfortunately, this was not actually the case, as the following photo indicates. The building was actually razed and the present building erected by Henry Hall Johnson & Company of Great Falls, which also designed the bank.
Beginning in the early 1920s drought and insect infestations began a reversal of the influx of homesteaders to the area, the exodus precipitating the failure of all the banks in Lewistown and many of the businesses, all of which had relied heavily on the farming community for their business. By 1924 no banks remained in business in Lewistown. In December of 1924, the town being bereft of banking institutions, the second First National Bank of Lewistown was chartered.
The following ad was placed on Page 7 of the December 09, 1913 issue of the Fergus County Democrat by the Lewistown State Bank, shortly after they had moved into their new building.
