Construction crews remodeling the brick building on the northeast corner of East Main and Mill streets in Festus recently pulled off a wooden facade over the door to reveal an engraved cement placard bearing the name of Farmers and Merchants Bank.
The bank closed almost 80 years ago, in 1938.
Comtrea, an agency that provides mental health and medical services throughout Jefferson County, has owned the old bank building since 1976 or 1977, but the building has been vacant for four or five years, assistant CEO Tracy Wiecking said.
Now, Comtrea is remodeling the building to relocate the agency’s Children’s Advocacy Center Festus office there, he said.
Wiecking said he saw photographs of the building that showed the sign and he always wanted to take down the wooden facade to see if it was still there.
“It’s pretty exciting to see the sign is still there and it’s still in as good a shape as it was,” he said.
Farmers and Merchants Bank in Festus was founded in 1903, but originally was located somewhere other than the northeast corner of Main and Mill streets. In 1907, the corner was a vacant lot, according to Howard C. Litton in his book Tanglefoot Vol. 2.
A boarding house had previously occupied the spot, but when the bank purchased the property, the boarding house was torn down and the bank was built, according to Litton.
Bank officers were chosen in 1907, and included W. Horace Waggener, president; Dr. J.F. Donnell, vice president; A.P. Booth, second vice president; and William L. Townsend, cashier. A map from 1908 shows that a bank building had appeared on the corner and occupied the west half of the lot while a drug store occupied the east side.
Early bank employees included Mabel Vollmar, Mary Hurley, Elizabeth McNutt and Lucy Jenni, according to Litton’s history book.
The second floor of the building housed offices that were rented out to a variety of professionals, including lawyers, dentists and doctors, he wrote.
One of the more notable tenants who occupied an office there in 1913 was a Dr. R.E. Edwards, an osteopathic physician, who moved his De Soto practice to Festus and traveled between that office and one in St. Louis.
“Dr. Edwards and family enjoyed a fine reputation in Festus. He was friendly, easy to become acquainted with, and was a quiet and unassuming person. He was a member of the Methodist Church who made his presence felt in an unobtrusive way,” Litton wrote.
Some of the more unusual tenants over the bank included a small business college, a Social Security Office and the Royal School of Music, and during the height of the depression, flour was kept in an empty storeroom in the bank to be distributed by the Red Cross to those in need.
Those who perhaps believed themselves in need robbed the Farmers and Merchants Bank on May 2, 1923.
The caper was carried out by two local men, “known by everyone,” who brazenly walked in the bank in broad daylight and robbed it at gunpoint. They got away with $7,000, but not for long, Litton said in his book.
“The two only enjoyed their wealth for about 30 minutes when they were caught and the entire $7,000 recovered,” Litton wrote. “Both were quickly tried, found guilty, were sentenced and served prison terms.”
In 1936, a Dr. Bertalan Bolgar, a Hungarian immigrant, came to Festus from St. Louis and took over the whole upstairs offices from a doctor who was leaving. He eventually purchased the building, probably when Citizens Bank bought out Farmers and Merchants in 1938. From then on the building was known as the Bolgar building.
Wiecking said the plan is to repair the concrete columns around the door and give the building a look that reflects its historic place in Festus. The door, however, will be for looks only but won’t be an entrance.
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