After the demolition of the historic Allison Building, the birthplace of Waynesburg’s famous Rain Day, in 2013, there was a vacant gap in the middle of the town. First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Greene County wanted to make a point to give back to the Waynesburg community by purchasing the land and use that area to build a new building in its place.

That new building, which had its grand opening July 28, the day before Rain Day, just so happens to look extremely similar to the old Allison Building.

“It was [made to resemble to Allison Building] as much as structurally and architecturally possible,” said Chuck Trump, vice president of First Federal. “That even is evident in the signage on the exterior of the building facing High Street. The sign, whose style closely resembles the signage that was on the building at one point, the roof at one point was a green tin roof, and it now has a green metal roof. It was a brick structure all of its life, and we of course followed suit with brick. Even the facade of the building is similar to what would have existed years ago with the Allison Building.”

The new building is a two-story, 6,500 square foot addition and serves as a mortgage center for the bank, which was looking to expand as the business continued to grow over the years. Trump said that they simply were running out of room for new employees, and the addition to the bank also provides work space for those employees that may not have had a lot of office space.

“Growth is good. With growth comes additional needs for personnel,” Trump said. “Honestly that was part of the justifications for the build—not necessarily being mortgage space need, but a need for other departments. We built the center for the mortgage department to fill the needs for these other offices. We knew there were people that needed offices, but we knew they weren’t going to be available until that project came to completion.”

In addition to its practical uses for the bank, Trump and other executives felt it would be good to pay tribute to the Allison Building’s history with a plaque that honors rain day on the side of the building. The wall that the plaque hangs on also has its own feature.

“The brick face that the plaque outside is fixed to are brick from the original Allison Building,” said Trump. “That was a cool gesture too.”

Along with the Rain Day plaque, the bank’s addition has a small hallway that Trump said he would like to see serve as a museum-type area.

“It’s a simple, small, narrower foyer, but at some point, in the future we would like to have historic landmarks of the association or the town in that foyer just as a display area where every six months we might rotate through things,” said Trump.

During the completion of the project, the feedback that First Federal received was extremely positive from the community.

“There are many compliments from folks that were aware of what stood there once as the Allison Building,” Trump said. “It was evident that we were attempting to resemble that structure as much as possible. The brick, the green roof, the tie into the building—we received a lot of compliments that it just looks nice aesthetically. It just looks like a nice addition to the original bank building.”