Impressive molded concrete blocks make this early bank building one of Bozeman’s most unique historic landmarks. Businessmen James E. Martin and Amos C. Hall (who served a term as mayor of Bozeman in 1922) established the Martin and Hall Bank, later the National Bank of Gallatin Valley, in 1903. This Classical Revival style building, constructed in 1905, features decorative brick highlights at the roofline. Solid construction and two-story fluted columns lend a visual stability symbolic of financial strength. The bank had a strong beginning, weathering a national depression in 1907, but finances could not match the building’s architectural message. The bank struggled during the depressed 1920s. Legend has it that W. S. Davidson, president of the Gallatin Trust and Savings Bank, situated across the street, would rise in his chair each morning and peer across the street to see if the National Bank would open its doors. In 1926, Davidson’s bank along with two others quietly absorbed the financially ailing institution. James Martin, longtime bank president, told neighbors that he quit banking to tend his sheep herd.