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In 1881, news came to Blair that the a railroad bridge was to be built over the
Missouri River connecting the tracks through Blair and the line to the North &
East. This was good news for the town. This started a 10 year period building
two and three story brick structures through at the town.
The old Bank Building was built on the corner of the main crossroads of
the rising town -- Washington Street (the main business district) and old Walker
Avenue (today, 16th Street.) At the save time, Arndt Hardware store was
construction in the lot just to the north. The brick work of these two
builds, (and many others in town) was done by John Moore (the father of Philip
Sheridan "Sherry" Moore. Sherry Moore was the father of Ruth Blanchard.)
An illustration of the building appears in A. T. Andreas's 1882 history
of the county. It was labeled as "Washington County Bank." Most likely
this was reference to a bank in Washington County and not "The" Washington
County Bank that has it's roots in neighboring Arlington, Nebraska.
Over the years, the bank building was also used as the offices for the
Enterprise
Newspaper, dentist office and a barber.
It was also known as Mathiesen Building, the Huber Building and is current known as Two Blair Place
-- housing offices of HunTel Systems.
In a photo published in the 1908 county plat map, the second floor window
shows a sign marked "Dentist" and the basement level has signs
labeled "Bath" & "Shave." There is evidence from
other photographs and maps that the Blair Democrat Newspaper offices were
accessed from a doorway on the south side of the building. That door has
since been bricked over.
Today, the building interior still retains several original features. The
front office space where the bank tellers were located still has some of the
early floor tiles. The bank safe is still located in this area. The
stairway to the second floor and some of the doorway woodwork is from an early
era.
Note from Dick Lippincot
I had many haircuts in the basement of that
building as well as having my shoes shined while I waited to get into Fred
Nemetz' chair. I also had gold hammered into my front teeth by Dr. Jipp
(Ed's father) in that building.
Other occupants of the build were:
Walter Huber
Dick Hansen Surveyors
Soil Conservation Office
Tanning Salon (in basement in the l990s)
Alfred O. Sick Realtor (in basement in between 1972-1986)
Barbers McComb, Luellan & Buckman
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