Merchants National Bank Building

During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, Lehigh was a prosperous community due to the high demand for coal from mines in Coal County.^[2] The Merchants National Bank was founded in 1906.^[2] It was the second bank in Lehigh; the Lehigh National Bank, founded in 1898, was the first.^[2] Merchants National Bank operated out of a temporary headquarters for the first several months of its operation.^[2] On January 29, 1907, it was announced that the constructing contract for the bank's building had been awarded to Faudree Brothers of Atoka, Oklahoma.^[2] The new bank was built on the southwest corner of Katy Avenue and Main Street, and it was, architecturally, one of the most striking buildings in town.^[2]

At the time it was built, the bank was located in Atoka County, a part of the Pushmataha District of the Choctaw Nation.^[5]

The coal boom ended in the 1910s, as railroads switched to cheaper fuel oil to power their trains.^[2] In the early 1920s, the railroads closed their mines in Lehigh.^[2] Declining crop prices and damage to the cotton crop from boll weevils further weakened the economy.^[2] The Merchants National Bank closed in 1923. The building subsequently housed a grocery store.^[2] Many of the other buildings on main street were abandoned.^[2] As part of New Deal projects during the Great Depression, most of the abandoned buildings on Main Street were torn down.^[2] During World War II, there was again a demand for coal in the area, and many of the town's buildings were torn down or moved so the ground underneath them could be readily mined.^[2]

By the 1980s, the grocery store in the Merchants National Bank Building had closed, and the building had deteriorated and been damaged by vandals.^[2] In the 1980s, the Lehigh Historical Society completed restoration work on the building.^[2][6] They replaced most of the windows and repaired the roof, ceilings, and floors.^[2] The building is the only remaining commercial building in what was once downtown Lehigh.^[2] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.^[3]

The building is two stories high and made of red brick with cream brick highlights.^[2] It measured 34 by 70 feet, with the short side facing Main Street and the long side facing Railroad Street.^[2] It is in the Late Victorian Renaissance style.^[2] At the northwest corner, there is a pyramidal tower with a steeply pitched roof and a short, rounded spire.^[2] Along the roof of the building, there is a brick parapet on the north and east sides with a sandstone capstone and eight pilasters.^[2] The west side of the building has no windows and an unadorned parapet because the west wall was a party wall for the adjacent building.^[2] The building has arched windows framed in buff bricks.^[2] It has a recessed corner entrance, which is supported by a red granite column on a sandstone pier.^[2] The entryway is arch-shaped, and the arch is filled in with decorated wrought iron in a fan-shaped design.^[2] The first floor of the building contains the original banking room, which has a pressed tin ceiling, stained oak door and window surrounds, and keystones above the window arches.^[2] It has a poured concrete floor, which replaced the original floor, which had been damaged by rot.^[2] The plaster walls have been covered by fiberboard.^[2]