The Farmers' and Merchants' Bank building, 1889, was erected by Silas Garber, the founder of Red Cloud (1871), the fourth governor of Nebraska (1875-1879), and the prototype for Captain Forrester in A Lost Lady.
The former bank now houses the Willa Cather State Historic Site and is owned by Nebraska State Historical Society. Cather archival materials are located in this building. The building was restored in the late 1950s by the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation. No doubt the "lost lady" herself visited this building many times!