Groundsite Image Gallery
Watkins Community Museum
Artist: Hughes, Langston
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
Watkins Community Museum of History, formerly Watkins Bank, 1047 Massachusetts St. (1888)
Langston Hughes writes about the constant threat of foreclosure his grandmother endured: “But we were never quite sure the white mortgage man was not going to take the house.”
Mark Scott suggests the “mortgage man” could be Albert L. Stanton, listed in the 1907 city directory as an employee of the Watkins Land Mortgage Co. In Hughes’s autobiographical novel Not Without Laughter, he names the small Kansas town Stanton. However, A.N. Fuller signed the mortgage, on behalf of the Lawrence National Bank, not Stanton.
This bank is similar to the Lawrence National Bank building that no longer exists. J.B. Watkins built this red-brick structure in 1888. At one time it was the city hall. The Romanesque Revival building remains an example of opulent architectural details, especially the interior of marble and polished hardwood. According to town lore, J.B. Watkins inspected all materials for the building and returned all that did not meet his standards.