Dominating the intersection of Second Avenue and Queen street, the First National Bank of Okanogan built this substantial brick and terra cotta building to house their rapidly expanding bank in 1914-1915. It quickly became the anchor for the downtown business district, remaining in use as a bank until 1982, though not as the First National Bank of Okanogan. In 1945 the building was sold to the Seattle First National Bank. Today the building is home to
Rawsons Department Store, a business with only a Facebook Page.
Standing on a corner lot, the building can easily and quickly be identified as a bank, first by its corner location and second, by its architecture. The most noticeable aspects of the building are its canted Greek Revival corner entrance, contrasting keystones over the ground floor Roman arched windows, decorative corbeled brick hoods over the upper floor windows and multilayered brick corbeling at the cornice, above which are small brick dentils below what appears to be a pressed metal cornice.
Near the centre of the long side of the building, on Queen street and to the left of the pair of entrances, is this historical plaque, placed by the Okanogan Chamber of Commerce and the City of Okanogan Planning Commission, with assistance from the Okanogan Historical Society.
1915 - First National Bank
of Okanogan
A letter of Invitation from Dr. J. I. Pogue, pioneer settler, brought Harry J. Kerr to Okanogan on the steamboat Enterprise on May 13, 1906. Dr. Pogue had invited Kerr to move from South Dakota and establish a bank in the young town then called Pogue, later to be named Okanogan.
On June 18, 1906, Kerr opened the doors for business at the Okanogan Valley Bank in a frame building on the corner of Second Avenue and Pine Street. In 1909 that business was chartered as the First National Bank of Okanogan.
By 1914, the bank had outgrown its quarters, and plans were drawn up for a new and larger building. Completed in July of 1915, this building served for years as the anchor for Okanogan's business District. It contains two stories and a basement with walls constructed of hollow terra cotta tile. The street sides are faced with cream colored pressed brick and the exterior trim tiles are of a light cream terra cotta. Bird & Hobson of Wenatchee were the general contractors, with Clem Schaller of Okanogan doing the excavation.
The building was sold in 1945 to Seattle First National Bank and remained in service as a bank until 1982. At that time it was purchased by the Rawson family and has been part of their family business since then.
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