Ore City was founded about 1910 as an iron mining center. On Dec. 16, 1911, its citizens organized the Guarantee State Bank, and after operating temporarily in the local schoolhouse, they built a brick structure on this site in 1912. State Representative W. O. Stamps, the first president, set up farsighted policies during the hard times when the iron mill failed to materialize. Cattle, hogs, mules, and crops figured as loan collateral here as in other Texas farm centers. Renamed the Security State Bank in 1927, the firm erected and moved into a new building nearby in 1968. (1976)