J. P. Kearns came to Townsend from Benton, Wisconsin, in 1899 and, drawing on his business education and experience, founded the State Bank of Townsend three months later to meet the town’s need for a new financial institution. The bank was first located at 312 Broadway Street, and in 1916 plans began for a new building designed by Albert Mooreman and Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, a firm specializing in bank plans and construction. Completed in 1918, the Neo-classical style structure featured an imposing temple-motif entrance framed by columns and pilasters with a pediment of colored sandstone, and its secure, commanding presence became especially significant during the hard financial years that followed. Despite drought, depression, and the region’s dependence on an agricultural economy devastated by those conditions, the bank survived when many small-town banks did not, owing to J. P. Kearns’ cautious loan policies and conservative banking methods. For almost a century, it was owned and operated principally by members of the same family that chartered it, setting a record unmatched by any other bank in Montana.