Classic Stanley Bank Threated
Located at the busy intersection of 151st and Metcalf, the old State Bank of Stanley is a landmark of the historic business district. It is one of the few Johnson County bank buildings surviving from the early twentieth centruy. The Building now is threantened by demolition for the widening of 151st Street.
The Stanley bank was organized April 3, 1905. The existing brick bank building was constructed in 1910 to replace an earlier structure destroyed in a February 2 fire that consumed the greater part of the business section. W.W. Frye, manager of the Grange store in Olathe and bank vice-president, announced in the Olathe Mirror that the directors intended to rebuild immediately. According to a newspaper account, a Gardner man was paid $10 to draw plans for the building, and Kirkpatrick and Company of Olathe was the masonry contractor. The cost of the building was $3,800. Ed Blair's History of Johnson County reported in 1915, “Stanley’s bank is the pride of the city.”
TheState Bank of Stanley was a notable survivor of the “bank holiday” declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Nearby banks in Morse, Stilwell and Olathe closed at that time, but the Stanley bank continued in business. Percy Kellogg was a long-time bank cashier and later president. His daughter recalled, “the bank and the post office were the hub of the community.” The bank’s business grew tremendously after 1960, and in 1975 the bank moved to a much larger modern structure on the west side of Highway 69. The historic bank building is now used as a florist’s shop.
Stanley was established when th east-west Clinton Branch of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad was constructed in 1872. A post office began operation March 19 of that year. By the time the bank was organized, Stanley was a flurishing rural market town with three stores and a lumberyard. In 1915 the town had about 300 residents.
The old Stanley Bank has a corner entrance and large display window in the west facade. It features modest Classical Revival details, such as rough-cut stone lintels, smooth-cut sills, and stone eave moldings in the west and north facades. A date stone above the entrance proclaims its date of construction. The interior is divided into three rooms. The large front room once served as the public banking room. The vault, an office, and storeroom are in a rear.
--ALBUM vol. 8, no. 2 (spring 1995)