The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is implicated in the response to physiological and psychosocial stressors however its role in stress-related psychiatric disorders is poorly understood. We examined if variation in AGTR1, the gene coding for the type 1 angiotensin II receptor (AT1R), is associated with a diagnosis of depression and differences in white matter hyperintensities and frontotemporal brain volumes. 257 depressed and 116 nondepressed elderly Caucasian subjects completed clinical assessments and provided blood samples for genotyping. We utilized a haplotype-tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (htSNP) analysis to test for variation in AGTR1. 1.5T MRI data for measurement of hyperintense lesions were available on 281 subjects, while 70 subjects completed 3T MRI allowing for measurements of the hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Two htSNPs exhibited statistically significant frequency differences between diagnostic cohorts: rs10935724 and rs12721331. Although hyperintense lesion volume did not significantly differ by any htSNP, dlPFC and hippocampus volume differed significantly for several htSNPs. Intriguingly, for those htSNPs differing significantly for both dlPFC and hippocampus volume, the variant associated with smaller dlPFC volume was associated with larger hippocampal volume. This supports that genetic variation in AGTR1 is associated with depression and differences in frontotemporal morphology.