320 Main Street
The two-story Noble and Lane Building -This building was the second home to the Noble and Lane Mercantile Business. The face of the mercantile building has changed. It was originally built by Worden P. Noble and Albert D. Lane in 1891. The stone building next to it is where their banking business was housed. This building resembles very closely how it looked in 1891.
An article in the Fremont Clipper newspaper, June 12, 1891, reported that Noble and Lane hired John A. Thompson to construct a “two-story brick business block on the site of their present store.” “The building is to be thirty-one feet front with plate glass windows. The entire lower floor will be occupied as a general salesroom; above, there will be two sets of offices in front, and in the rear a hall, twenty-nine by forty-two, with two rooms, available for lodging purposes. There will be front and back stairways. The present store building will be moved to the lot west of where it now stands, and be occupied by the firm until the new building is completed; the two wings are to be at once torn down. The contractor states that the building is classed as an $8,000 structure, but will cost considerable more than that by the time it is ready for occupancy. The building will be a great ornament to the street, and people will be exceedingly glad to learn that Messrs. Noble & Lane have decided to take such a business step.”
At the age of 21, Worden P. Noble entered into the general merchandise business in Atlantic City. He ran his business for one year and then moved on to his freighting business. In about 1880, he became a licensed Indian trader and started a store at the “Shoshone Agency.” He took in his bother-in-law, Albert D. Lane, as an associate and by 1885 opened their first store in Lander. In 1890, Noble’s younger brother, Fred F. Noble, joined them and they added the banking to their business.
