The first location for the First National Bank was at the northeast corner of 2nd Street and Johnstone Avenue, on the same corner as the Almeda Hotel. This was Bartlesville’s first bank and opened in 1900. In 1908, the National Bank merged with the Citizen’s Bank & Trust (the Phillips’ bank) and became the Bartlesville National Bank. In 1920, the First National Bank Building was built by Frank and L. E. Phillips to house the First National Bank, with the upper floors to house the Phillips Petroleum Company. The six-story building was built at the 4th Street and Johnstone Avenue intersection in the Italianate style, with large oversized arched windows on the first floor. The first floor was accented with limestone and with a cornice to separate the first floor from the upper stories. There was a belt course dividing the fifth and sixth floors and a large cornice on the top of the sixth floor. The First National Bank changed its name to Weststar Bank in the late 1980’s, and then in 1994 joined the Arvest Bank group of Arkansas. The building was razed in order to construct an additional Phillips Petroleum office building.
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First National Bank
329 S Johnstone Avenue