First National Bank Building
109 N. Oregon
El Paso, Texas 79901
The First National Bank Building was constructed in 1882-83 as part of the real estate boom that took place after the arrival of the railroad.
Joshua and Jefferson Reynolds, active in New Mexico banking, financed its construction and were the bank’s first presidents. It was originally a two-story structure in the Italianate style but in the mid-1880s a pitched roof was added, transforming it into the Second Empire style.
By 1900, a main entrance was installed near the center of the East San Antonio side of the building.
The building’s most famous tenant was gunfighter John Wesley Hardin who had his law office on the second floor in the 1890s. As one of El Paso’s most prosperous banks it thrived for more than fifty years but closed its doors in 1933 during the Great Depression. The building has undergone several renovations and continues to serve as retail and professional office space.
