Oh, hello again. Are you enjoying Rhyolite? I sure hope so, it is a great little place to visit. Anyway, lets talk about the Cook Bank Building. Mr. Cook came from Goldfield, Nevada to
Rhyolite in hopes of opening another Cook Bank. He started with a small building on Golden St. in May of 1905, and it did not take long for him to decide he needed a much larger place to conduct business.
He hired the contractor Geo. E. Holsworth from Tonopah to buld a three story building with a basement. It was completed in January of 1908, rising to a height of 43 feet.
This one cost him over $90,000 to build! It was to become the largest building in Rhyolite. No matter where you stood you could see the Cook Bank Building.
Mr. Cook had 2 vaults installed. (You know, I overheard a banker just the other day say they still build banks like this today. I didn't know they built the buildings around the safes, did you? )
This building had marble floors imported from Italy, mahogany woodwork, electric lights, telephone and inside plumbing! Well, they had just everything you could put into
a modern building. It was almost ahead of its time.
Mr. Cook moved his bank into the building only to be absorbed by the First National Bank of Rhyolite within a few short months. John S. Cook maintained the ownership of the building, but no
longer had a bank in Rhyolite. About the same time, the Rhyolite Post Office was having an awful time trying to find room for the postal boxes and still have room to work. Not to mention, that more boxes were neeeded, they just didn't have
enough to accommodate the entire population of the town. It was growing so fast that no one could keep up! So they up and moved the entire operation to the basement of the Cook Bank Building, and there it operated until 1919.
It was the last business to close in Rhyolite. And that was quite a task for the Post Office, because they were selling parts of the Cook Bank Building in 1910!
In 1964 a movie called "The Reward" was filmed in Rhyolite Using the Cook Bank. It was during that time that the arches, false facade on the windows and iron railings were added to the building.
It was designed to look like an abandoned Spanish Town. Several Movies have been made using the Cook Bank Building, but only two have made dramatic changes to the structure. In 2004 Dreamworks Studios used the Cook Bank for the movie
"The Island". It was in their contract to put the Cook Bank back to its original glory, so they removed the false facade and the iron work on the windows. The Arches had long since been removed, it is unknown who and when they were removed.
THUMB NAILS OF THE COOK BANK BUILDING
(If you don't want to look at all the photos, just scroll to the bottom of the page.)
As with the links in the story, the photos will open in a new window
1908
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1909
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1915
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1920
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1924
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1926
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1939
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1948
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1960
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1964
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1964
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1978
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2000
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2003
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2004
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2007
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