Iconic bank turns 50

Fifty years ago this month, the uniquely designed First National Bank of Tucumcari at 302 S. First St. opened for business.

The architect of the bank, now owned by Wells Fargo, wants it designated to the National Register of Historic Places. But he says Wells Fargo is resisting.

Save for its "Wells Fargo" sign and other minor modifications, the bank building is little changed since it first opened to the public on Sept. 3, 1974.

A Wells Fargo employee wouldn't permit photos of the interior last week, but a visual inspection showed many of its original features remained intact.

The 20-foot-wide chandelier still hangs over the main lobby. The curved counter designed for 14 tellers stands, though only one teller was using it on a recent weekday. The wrought-iron staircase to second-floor offices still exists. The stain-glass windows that show kachina dancers still bring light into the lobby. The original furniture is sprinkled throughout. The covered parking for employees still stands, as do the five drive-up banking areas.

Lastly, the massive brick structure of the building itself, including its arches, looks no different that it did a half-century ago.

"The building is 30,000 square feet, and it has no construction expansion joints at all," said the bank's architect of record, Gene Dyer, in a telephone interview last week. "After 50 years, it has no cracks. So it's remarkable in that sense."

The project

Dyer was in his 30s when he was with Dyer, McClernon Architects. It received a contract to design a new First National Bank of Tucumcari. The bank first started in downtown in 1901, then moved into another building at Second and Main streets in the 1940s.

G. Wilbur Jones was the bank's president, but Dyer said another of its executives, Barton Jones, was the key driver for its new building. Dyer said he and Barton were friends in high school in Tucumcari and at New Mexico Military Institute.

"Wilbur oversaw it, but Barton was the primary driver for the project," Dyer recalled. "He was very tenacious. He's the reason that building is the building it is. He's a perfectionist by heart. I spent almost day to day during the design process with Barton."

Dyer said Jones brought him a photograph of a bank in Uvalde, Texas, that was not particularly notable, except it was all brick. Jones said he did not want the new building in a Pueblo-style architecture often seen in New Mexico.

"He wanted something that was serene and reserved and principled," Dyer said. "He said, 'I want a brick building.' When he did that, I said, 'Well, if we're going to do a brick building, we want to do it the way the early masons did it. We want to do it with true arches, true corbels, true groin vaults and through-the-wall masonry.'"

The masonry contractor was Bradbury and Stamm of Albuquerque, which hauled 14 freight car loads of brick from Denton, Texas, to the site.

Dyer said another design inspiration was the region's mesas, such as Tucumcari Mountain and the namesake mesa at Bell Ranch.

"We didn't want to make it look like a mountain, but we wanted to use the mountain as sort of a form-giver," he said.

Dyer said the glass wall at the entrance also was the first such structure west of the Mississippi River.

The project broke ground in November 1972. The bank took a little over a year to build and, by one report, cost more than $1 million. Dyer said it required 10 masonry workers.

It opened to the public after Labor Day weekend of 1974 so bank employees would have three days to move equipment and records into their new building.

The First National Bank of Tucumcari gave local media - including the Tucumcari News, KTNM radio and Teleprompter Cable - a sneak peek of its new quarters.

The Aug. 30, 1974, edition of the Tucumcari News contained photographs of the interior. It printed congratulatory advertisements, including from the contractors - such as Broce Construction of Tucumcari, C&E Mechanical of Amarillo, Page & Wirtz of Amarillo and local painter Cliff Mace.

One of the full-page ads came from the bank itself, with photos of its 36 employees.

The First National Bank of Tucumcari sold its operations to Wells Fargo in 1997.

Dyer said Barton Jones lives in the Austin, Texas, area but is in poor health.

Dyer, who also designed the Exposition Center at the Quay County Fairgrounds, went on to a 40-year career at Moshe Safdie and Associates in Boston and still holds an architecture license.

He and his wife, Dorothy, maintain Quay County ties by owning a lakeside home in Logan.

Designation?

The Dyers have worked for months with preservation officials to try to have the former First National Bank of Tucumcari listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gene Dyer said Wells Fargo is resisting the designation.

"We're disappointed with that, but we hope to kind of change their mind in some sort of way over time," he said. "They hinted that it might inhibit the future sale of the building."

"All we want to do it put a plaque on the building," Dorothy Dyer added.

Teresa Cutler-Broyles, a historic preservation consultant in Albuquerque who's helped the Dyers with National Register nomination, said the owner's concerns are "understandable" but unfounded.

"The answer is that there are no prohibitions against selling the property" if it is on the National Register, she stated in an email.

Cutler-Broyles also cited the Register's website, which states: "Under Federal Law, the listing of a property in the National Register places no restrictions on what a non-federal owner may do with their property up to and including destruction, unless the property is involved in a project that receives Federal assistance, usually funding or licensing/permitting."

Ruben Pulido, a spokesman for Wells Fargo in New Mexico, stated in an email to the Quay County Sun: "As a company with a rich history dating back to 1852, Wells Fargo operates many historical branches across the country. We are proud stewards of these historical sites, regardless of whether they are officially designated as such.

"Our Tucumcari branch is a fixture of the town dating back to 1901, and we are committed to maintaining this branch's simple beauty and uniqueness as part of our commitment to serve the Tucumcari community.

"We are evaluating the potential benefits of seeking a historical designation for the branch."

The Dyers also have nominated the building for an American Institute of Architects Twenty-five Year Award. That is awarded to a building that has set an architectural design standard of excellence for 25 to 35 years.