A black and white, yellow tinted photo postcard of the Bank of Bisbee. The front caption at the bottom reads: “Bank of Bisbee, Bisbee, Arizona” The postcard is unused, and the publisher is unknown. Edward Francis collection.

The Bank of Bisbee was organized by W.H. Brophy, James S. Douglas, Ben Williams, J.B. Angius and M.J. Cunningham and opened on February 19th, 1900 with a capital stock of $50,000 ($1,600,000 in 2021), which was collected in full beforehand. Many of the bank’s founders also served as its directors: Ben Williams, James S. Douglas, L.D. Ricketts, W.H. Brophy and M.J. Cunningham. They began in a section of the Angius building before moving into their final location in 1902. The Bank of Bisbee was built by architecture firm Trost & Trost and was constructed with concrete and brick. The site it was built on was adjacent to the fire station that served as a meeting place for City Council. When it was originally built, the Bank of Bisbee was decorated with two Ionic columns. Those were replaced with two Doric columns that remain today. The bank had a number of expansions: it first grew to occupy the Bisbee Drug Store that was on its western side and the second was in the 1920s where it expanded into a 22-foot lot were a saloon once occupied. In 1933, the Bank of Bisbee voluntarily liquidated due to the Great Depression. After the liquidation, the building was taken over by the Bank of Douglas which was eventually replaced by the Arizona Bank. Today, the Western Bank serves the community in the old Bank of Bisbee building.

1980.65.23