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 Seccession Convention in 1861 and an officer in the Confederate Army. For a time after 1865, he ran freight business between San Antonio nd 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 conveince 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.