PLANTERS BANK

OSCEOLA ARKANSAS

Most banks built at the turn of the nineteenth-to-the-twentieth century reflect a solidity and permanence that states “Your Money is Safe Here.”

Planters Bank is no exception.

Built in the Neoclassical style so common with banks of the period, Planters has gone through a series of changes, as is evidenced by the missing sign. The dark elongated rectangle within the entablature (the massive lintel held up by the Doric columns and square pilasters) undoubtedly once held raised letters naming the bank, possibly painted with gold leaf.

But it wasn’t always Planters (I keep wanting to insert an apostrophe, but there was undoubtedly more than one planter and banks never used plural possessives). It became First State Bank, Citizens Bank (no apostrophe?), a mercantile store (redundant term, that), and City Hall.

Its present use is as a church.

 

Though I guess a bank could be considered a place of worship. Milburn Drysdale would agree.

An adjoining building to the left has since been removed, revealing a rather flimsy party wall made of cinder block. It is rather a thin structure compared to the massive, solid Bank façade presented to the public.

A lesson in economics, perhaps?