Miners and Merchants Bank
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First National Bank of Lake City (Miners and Merchants Bank)
c. 1877, George Bauer and John Schultz, builders. 231 Silver St. (southwest corner of 3rd St.)
John S. Hough hired George Bauer and John Schultz, stonemasons from Del Norte in Rio Grande County and brothers-in-law, to build this two-story stone bank building with a wooden cornice supported by scalloped and scrolled brackets. They used dressed local stone for the pilasters between arched windows with oversized keystones. Inside, skillful mortise-and-tenon joints distinguish the construction, as do the thick brick walls of a walk-in vault, hardwood floors, and a pressed metal ceiling. The Thatcher brothers of Pueblo took over the bank after its initial failure and operated it until 1904, when the Bank Exchange Saloon moved in. Nowadays this splendid structure houses the First National Bank of Lake City and the newspaper—the tiny, venerable Hinsdale County Silver World.
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