Provident Loan Company, Brownsville Branch, ca. 1905.

This simplified Beaux-Arts style structure was built in the first decade of the 20th century. Designed by architect, Arthur G. Stone, the building was erected to house the Jenkins Trust Bank. After that firm collapsed in the financial Panic of 1907 the branch was closed. In 1909 the building was sold to the Provident Loan Society, a non-profit loan firm that provided short-term cash loans, in direct competition to the shady loan sharks and pawn brokers of the day. The Loan Society moved out in the 1960s, after which the structure was occupied by various retail stores. At some point between the early 1980s and the 2007 the facade was reclad with marble tiles at the base and had a large concrete band installed over the tops of the large windows (some of which have also been bricked up). The Beaux-Arts ornamentation just under the roofline remain, as does the lovely tiled Mediterranean style roof.