BARTLETT, TEXAS BANK RENOVATION

 

Jennifer Tucker was exploring the downtown streets of Bartlett, a quaint town nestled in southeast Texas, when she stumbled upon an abandoned bank in 2019.

"It was dilapidated, and nobody had opened the front door in many, many years," Tucker, 49, told Business Insider. "It was in pretty bad shape."

Tucker owns Amazing Realty, a real-estate brokerage based in Austin, and is passionate about historic preservation. The bank building — a relic of Bartlett's heyday in the early 20th century — was a shell of its former self.

Tucker recalled walking up to the bank's front windows and peeking inside, where the phrase "Bartlett Natl. Bank" was carved on the tile floor.

"At that moment, I just knew I had to have this building," Tucker said.

 

Now Bartlett National Bank has three bedrooms and two bathrooms on two floors and is available for rent at $248 a night on Airbnb.

A plaque on the building's brick exterior touches on the history of Bartlett National Bank, which opened in June 1904 with $25,000. It remained operational until 1931, when it closed for a federal holiday amid the Great Depression and did not reopen for several decades.

Bartlett National Bank made a brief three-year return in the 1990s but was shuttered again because it lacked drive-up teller windows, according to the plaque. Although the bank survived an ill-fated attempted robbery in the 1960s and appeared in the 1998 film "Newton Boys," starring Matthew McConaughey, it remained relatively quiet until Tucker stepped in.

To read the complete article, see:
A 119-year-old bank sat abandoned in a tiny Texas town for decades. Now it's a 3-bedroom home with the original vaults and a teller station — take a look. (https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-119-year-old-texas-bank-renovated-3-bedroom-home-2023-12)

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