"Alas!" The "why" for this building??
Yes you see, here is where we begin to now take all that we know, and answer the famed question, “why does this landmark building, considered a cornerstone in the state, a compelling and visually stunning piece of architecture, not have any significant story?”........ After everything, we’ve researched and conveyed ... .the answer to this famed question on this “flash in the pan” building, is ... .well just that, “It was a flash in the pan.” You see, the last thing said on the previous page, is perhaps the most important. The timing of when it was built. Richardsonian Romanesque, for as popular as it had become, its “boom” only lasted for so long. Its main rise with its early buildings in the United States of America, was from the mid to late 19th Century. The entire rise for this sweeping Architectural movement was like, "a 2000’s boy band with one hit song". In all seriousness though, by the time the movement began slowing and more architectural styles began to take precedence, Richardsonian Romanesque became the norm, which when we scale in from the greater historical scope of “only mid to late 19th Century” to “yeah, it has been 30 years”, we begin to understand, how that came to be. For the Ness County Bank Building, it just so happens to be in the middle of this movement (kinda more late prime if you think about it, but I digress). In combination with it being “first on the scene in Ness City” it earns what it gets. It was never going to be more than that, because it was just an indicator of the time the architectural world was in. It's just the first example in Kansas, similar to how the Trinity Church was the first example in Boston, though admittedly Trinity Church is landmark for other reasons, but here it demonstrates the idea well. The Ness County Bank Building ultimately was just "one of" the many in a line of visual messaging as strong as the style itself was sending……
Which as we conclude, the style could still be seen into the first years of the 20th Century with buildings in different types and in smaller scales, such as the Kirk Modern Apartments or Memorial Hall still in the midwest in Iowa, and greater west in Washington with the two respectively.
The completed map of the "Story of Style"