The century-old Bank of Avilla building, now a post office, in the Route 66 hamlet of Avilla, Missouri, recently was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The designation became effective March 7, according to an email Friday from the National Park Service, which administers the National Register program.
The Joplin Globe had some details about the building in a January story:
The brick, flat-roofed building, 205 Greenfield St., was constructed as a bank in 1914 by an unknown builder, according to the nomination form. Its interior still retains the vault, shelving, part of the lobby wall and lobby area, the form states. A $400 Preservation Award given in 2014 from the Route 66 Association was used for tuckpointing to preserve the brick walls.
“Other than some interior changes, the building retains the majority of its historic character,” the nomination form states.
The bank, the only one in Avilla, played an important role in the development of the town, the form says. In addition to its history as a lending institution, multiple robberies committed in its early years serve as a record of the “gangster era” of the 1920s and 1930s. The bank also was a place to pay property taxes and buy tickets to the Ozark State Fair and the Southwest Missouri Fair.
“The Bank of Avilla opened in 1915 and served the community and area well for almost 30 years, making land and chattel loans and loans to merchants, farmers and townspeople, surviving the Great Depression and multiple bank robberies,” according to the nomination form. “It is commercially significant to the community, as it was the only bank in the small town and was relied upon by many in Avilla and the surrounding area until its closure in 1944.”
The Ozarks History website contains information about one of the robberies in 1932. The robbers later were implicated for several heists in the region.
The building became the village’s post office in 1952.
(Image of the Bank of Avilla building in Avilla, Missouri, via Wikipedia)
