Time to Fall Back, Unless You’re Hanging from the Mercantile
by Paula Bosse
“Fall back” at 2 AM…
by Paula Bosse
The poor Merc is having a rough time of it at the moment. Here’s a photo from happier days, when it was the Mercantile Bank Building, getting some sort of touch-up to one of its clock faces. Which, by the way, should remind you to turn your clocks back in the wee hours of Nov. 2!
That tower used to do a lot. And all four clock faces had the correct time — all at the same time!
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Sources & Notes
Photo from the Richards Group Collection, Dallas History & Archives, Dallas Public Library (accession number PA83-3/40).
Mercantile National Bank ad from Dallas magazine, sometime in 1956:
See the Merc in all its early-days glory in these posts:
- “The Mercantile Bank Building — 1951”
- “Main Street — ca. 1942”
- “Season’s Greetings from Dallas’ Most Stylish Banks”
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Copyright © 2025 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
I no longer live in the Dallas Area. I remember looking at this clock and the building from about the age of 5 until 18 when w drove from Oak Cliff to the Northwest Highway. Is this building still there? If not, what replaced it?
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It’s still there. It is having a lot of severe structural problems at the moment (see the link in the first sentence). It’s one of my favorite buildings downtown.
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Gives me a back ache! Could not be more apropos for tonight! Thanks Paula!
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