From a bank to a post office, this building has had over a century of purpose in Avilla, Missouri

Post Office in Avilla, Missouri (previously the Bank of Avilla in Missouri erected 1915.Photo byEric Swanger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

This building is at 205 West Greenfield Street in Avilla, Missouri (Jasper County). When it was built in 1915, over a century ago, it was the Bank of Avilla. Today, it's a U.S. Post Office. The building is still serving the community.

The Bank of Avilla was the only bank in Avilla serving its residents from 1915 until 1944. The bank's long history also had its share of bank robberies. Once closed, the postal service moved into the building in 1952. On March 7, 2022, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Bank of Avilla was organized on September 18, 1914, and opened in January the following year.

The first cashier of the bank was Samuel Salyer. The bank's experience with five robberies occurred between 1920 and 1939. The fourth robbery occurring on May 19, 1932, was said to be the only successful one up to that point. The amount of $3,000 was stolen and the robber also took the cashier as hostage who was later thrown out of the car.

Author Lisa Livingston-Martin described the fourth robbery in her book: Missouri's Wicked Route 66: Gangsters and Outlaws on the Mother Road, published in 2013. The cashier who was taken was Mr. Ivy E. Russell. The gang robber received a 75-year sentence as a result which included robbing the Bank of Jasper, Missouri. After that robbery, Russell kept a gun behind the teller's window.

In November 1944, the bank closed after being sold to the Bank of Carthage. Carthage is about a 13-minute drive from Avilla. While the bank building is now a post office, that says something about the strong structure of the building to have lasted this long. There was an attempt to close the post office in 2011, but the residents and the Route 66 Association of Missouri rallied to keep it. The post office operates from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the weekdays and 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays.

The Bank of Avilla was a strong rural bank that survived the Great Depression. The building itself while serving as a U.S. Post Office building today, continues to operate in a community that's also been referred to as a ghost town. The structurally sound building is a block away from the infamous Route 66. If you ever take a Route 66 road trip, you might consider visiting history by visiting this building.

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