Old Wettermark Bank Building

Old Wettermark Bank Building. . , Photographs in the 1880's show a wooden mercantile establishment with a gabled front facing east on this property. There was an open area to the south lying between this building and the mercantile establishment of Mayer and Schmidt., The Henderson-based Wettermark Bank opened in Nacogdoches in 1883 at the west end of this block. In 1896 the firm purchased this corner for $2,500.00 and commissioned D. Rulfs to design a new building. Rulfs planned a two-story rectangular brick structure with a flat roof and elaborate brickwork cornice above in set panels. For the main banking entrance on the east side, he used a chamfered doorways between two-story pilasters, a prominent band of bricks between the two floors, and a doorway crowned by a wooden bank sign and flagpole. The Henderson Times in 1899 described the firm as "an imposing bank, in a magnificent two story edifice." In a 1917 picture, the cornice appeared more pronounced than it is today and the ground floor windows were different., Ben S. Wettermark, son of the founder and the principal in charge of the Nacogdoches branch, was the mayor of Nacogdoches at the turn of the century and a leading promoter of business in the community. While the bank had operated successfully in Nacogdoches for nineteen years, in January of 1903 Wettermark abruptly closed the doors of the bank and fled town with all the vault's contents. While the failure of the bank was due in part to the cotton market collapse, the Daily Sentinel did publish examples of Wettermark's forgeries and frauds. Estimates of missing funds amounted to over half a million dollars. Since none of the cash was ever recovered, stockholders and citizens lost heavily in the collapse. Wettermark left his unsuspecting father and family to cope with the creditors; they sold everything and moved from Nacogdoches by the end of the year. Reports later placed Wettermark in South America., Many businesses, from a pool hall to barber shops and clothing stores, later occupied the building. J.W. Kennedy's Stone Fort Drug Store, Western Union, and Pool-Perkins Pharmacy were long-term tenants. In the 1990s Reese and Carolyn Andrews purchased the building and undertook restoration of the exterior with the help of funds approved by the Nacogdoches Landmark Committee.