T.C. Frost and the Frost Bank
Thomas Claiborne Frost (1833-1903) came to Texas from Alabama in 1855 to teach at Austin College, Huntsville. Admitted to the Bar in 1856, he served as a Texas Ranger before setting up a law practice in Comanche County. He was a delegate to the Secession Convention in 1861 and an officer in the Confederate Army. For a time after 1865, he ran a freight business between San Antonio and the port of Indianola.
In 1868 Frost entered a partnership with his brother John and M.L. Fitch in a mercantile company located at this site. In 1874 T.C. Frost became the sole owner of the operation, to which he added a warehousing and wool commission business. Because Frost was a trusted merchant with a strong safe, he served as banker for the convenience of his customers. Frost gradually phased out his mercantile and wool interests and developed the service into a general banking business.
The bank acquired a national charter in 1899. Thornton, Wright and Co., formerly Traders National Bank, and Lockwood National Bank merged with Frost. In 1922 Frost National Bank erected this 12-story building on the original store site. The bank moved to larger facilities on west Houston Street in 1973.
Marker is at the intersection of Commerce Street and Main Plaza, on the left when traveling west on Commerce Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
