Caption : "Figure above the entrance to a cafe in Denison, Texas." Photographs by Russell Lee; ca. March 1940. U.S. Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information collection, Library of Congress. Call # LC-USF34-035517-D. See http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/fsa/8b24000/8b24100/8b24137u.tif

It was in December 1952 when the building was condemned and in September 1953 it was scheduled to be torn down.  Wreckers arrived and went to work on February 1, 1954.  There was no uprising of the residents who wanted to keep the eyesore.  History wasn't as important to them then as it is now.  However, The Denison Herald that reported the decision to demolish the building as "Death of a Denison Landmark".
Three years after the building came down, Lilley-Linn Department Store opened a three story modern bulding designed by Donald Mayes.  It operated until 1967 when Lilley's moved to the new Madden building that had been constructed after a tremendous fire destroyed the original Madden's Department Store.  In 1968 Lilley's expanded its Men and Boys Store and moved into the 331 West Main building.  Later it was remodeled for the Independent Bank that still operates there.

The Denison Herald
Sunday, March 14, 1954
pg. 12

MILLS CLAIMS TO BE LAST LIVING MAN WHO HELPED BUILD SECURITY BUILDING
Sixty-three years ago they said the Security Building would never be completed, according to J.R. Mills, a retired carpenter who helped build it.  They were saying the same thing about it being torn down before they finally started the demolition work.
It broke several contractors and....builders before it was completed after at least three false starts.
The contractor who was to put in the foundation went broke when he hit nothing but hard rock.  The building became a swimming hole for several years before work was resumed.
It finally was partially completed and with its....put....was headquarters for a hardware company.  But this didn't last and in 1907 it was converted into the office building with 60 rooms installed.
Long after this the building known early as the Leeper and Boldrick Building after its original owners housed the Security State Bank from which, despite all of the insecurity it gave its owners, it got its present name.
Tjere was a mild depression time when it fell under and an auctioneer's hammer.  But there wasn't a single acceptable bid made and the building continued along its uneasy way.
"I came down from Dallas for a visit," Mills said, "in 1907.  They were looking for carpenters and I borrowed a hammer and went to work."
Although the building at one time attracted visitors from Dallas and Fort Worth who came to gawk at its height as Texas' first skyscraper, by then Mills said the old Southland Hotel and the Magnolia Building was under construction in Dallas.
Mills was an engineer in a laundry when he married....in Dallas on April 2..."
Her father said three of her brothers were carpenters." said Mills, "and they insisted that I be one.  It wasn't too hard...my father was also a carpenter."
Mills said he got paid $3 per day for a eight-hour shift when he worked on the Security Building.  The scale was $2.33 an hour when he retired a few years ago.
The 76-year-old retired carpenter said he guessed he was the last living man who had helped build the old structure now being razed.
" I remember that after getting the floor in the first level, I stayed down and cut trim for the rest of the building.  Cox and Peale were contractors on the job.