Our building was built as the Central State Bank sometime in the first decade of the 1900s. It remained such for a number of years, until the bank decided to relocate to where Sunflower Bank currently stands in Liberal.
Since then, the building has been a number of things, including a hair salon, an antique store, and a furniture warehouse. Currently, we are still trying to locate information about other businesses and people that inhabited the space.
The main floor of our building remains similar in layout to the original Central State Bank’s. We currently utilize the main vault as our inventory stock room, and our bar is in roughly the same location that the bank tellers’ booths stood. Above our hand-painted tiles is the original decorative tin ceiling, but we were unable to use it due to another fiber-tile ceiling that lays between the tin and current ceiling.
A large basement spans the same footprint as the main floor. The basement once held several offices and small businesses, which could be accessed via a staircase built into the outdoor sidewalk. Unfortunately, all remains of our outdoor access tunnels have been filled in. However, the basement still houses the original furnace and air conditioner, which lay underneath The Cozy Corner’s restroom. The furnace is about the size of a small car.
Above main floor is an unfinished apartment that likely housed the banker’s family when the building was built. An access door to the neighboring south building stands in the living room, but has since been sealed shut. The apartment is approximately 1600 square feet!
Lastly, the building had an expansion built on at some point for unknown reasons. It contains a series of offices that once housed Heritage Real Estate. Currently, LB Services LLC: Notary & Translator occupies the space. They’re great neighbors!
If you have any information at all, including photos, records, receipts, or anything else, about our building, please share it with us! Our mission is community, and community comes with an understanding of our past. We want to know what came before us and how we can remember it. We hope to one day have a comprehensive record of everything about the building from its construction to today.
