Bank of Bowie Opens

The J. Guy Bell House in Old Bowie, former home to the Bank of Bowie

July 28, 1920 (93 years ago today):  The Bank of Bowie opened in the two front rooms of a home at the corner of Chestnut Avenue and 11th Street (next to the present day Old Bowie Town Grille).  The home was built four years earlier by J. Guy Bell and his wife Ann Augusta Bell.  The first president of the bank was Nelson R. Ryon, and the first cashier was William Luers.  The Bank of Bowie moved into a newly constructed concrete building a few years later.  Through mergers and acquisitions, the bank transitioned multiple times.  At one point it was known as the Bank of Maryland, it was later called the Suburban Trust Company, and it eventually became part of the Bank of America.

The addition on the left side of the house was constructed to house a beer parlor after the Prohibition Act was repealed, and the space was later occupied by a doctor's office.  The home was also used as an antique store at one point.