Category:Dime Savings and Trust (Allentown, Pennsylvania)

Camera location	40° 36′ 08″ N, 75° 28′ 22″ W	View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMap	40.602222; -75.472778

Dime Savings and Trust Company 

building in Pennsylvania, United States
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Instance of	building
Location	Pennsylvania
Architectural style	Art Deco architecture
Heritage designation	National Register of Historic Places listed place (A, B, C, NRHP building, Dime Savings and Trust Company, 1985–)
40° 36′ 07.92″ N, 75° 28′ 22.08″ W
Authority file  Q5277213 NRHP reference number: 85000036 Reasonator Scholia Wikidocumentaries PetScan statistics WikiMap Locator tool KML file WikiShootMe OpenStreetMap Search depicted

The Dime Savings and Trust Company was formed in 1921 at the northeast corner of 7th and Linden Street, on the first floor of the Reid Hotel. During the early 1920s, the bank prospered and it built a new, six-story, art deco building on the northwest corner of Center Square in 1925. The bank was built on one of the largest business enterprises of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Weiler's Liquor Store which closed in 1919 as a result of prohibition. Although Weiler had ceased selling liquor to the public, he could sell his old stock to doctors and hospitals for medicinal purposes. When the property was torn down in 1924, nearly 700 gallons of various wines were taken to the Allentown city dump, and the bottles were destroyed by prohibition agents.

The Dime Bank building was designed from the outset to be a ten-story 'skyscraper'. It was built so the top 'cap' of the building could be removed and additional floors of leased office space be added once building capacity was reached and economic conditions warranted the additional space. It was that original design that served the building well over the decades as events would show.

The bank became the 5th largest bank in Allentown. However, the stock market crash of 1929 and the economic crisis that followed put pressure on several local banks, the Dime being one of them. In June 1932 a "run" began at the bank as people, hearing rumors, and having become unemployed, began withdrawing their savings in order to survive.

Allentown Mayor Fred Lewis and local bankers had formed what was called the Clearing House Association to foster mergers between troubled banks and more stable institutions. On July 3rd it was announced that the Dime was to merge with the larger Lehigh Valley Trust Company or be "consolidated", and the bank was closed. The building was subsequently held in trust by the Leigh Valley Trust Company, pending disposition. Although the upper floors of the building were still used by professionals in their leased offices, the main and terrace floors of the former Dime Savings were taken over by the Lehigh Valley Motor Club, which moved into the building in October 1932 from smaller quarters in the Commonwealth Building across from the Colonial Theater. The motor club provided services to their members through the former main teller room of the bank and used the terrace underneath for various offices and meeting rooms of the motor club directors.

Finally, in September 1937, after numerous attempts to find a suitable buyer, the former Dime Bank building was sold to the estate of John F. Weiler at a sheriff's sale, who had originally owned the property in the 1920s before the Dime Bank purchased it. The Lehigh Valley Motor Club had moved out of the building and into leased office space on the south side of Center Square, in the YMCA building at the end of 1936. The Marble Bar, a restaurant and watering hole, opened in the building in February 1937. The Marble Bar apparently took its name after the use of marble in the building, it was a popular eating and drinking place. The name was changed to the Super Pub in April 1963 when it was taken over by new owners.

In March 1945, the building was again purchased by Charles C Vogt from the Weiler estate. The following year, Frank Beinder and John Kemmerer purchased the building, with Kemmerer buying out Binder's half in 1951. In 1964 the name of the building was changed to the "Commerce Building" when it was purchased by Gerald I. Roth. The Super Pub restaurant was closed after being damaged by water during the Feb 1969 Leon Furniture Fire. The building, however, survived at what was originally thought pretty much unscathed. Decades later, in 2013 when the building was reconstructed, extensive fire damage was revealed, however, it did not affect the structural integrity of the building. The upstairs offices were vacated after the fire, and the Bethlehem-based First Valley Bank purchased the building in May 1969 and opened a branch operation in the bank in January 1970. First Valley refurbished the interior of the bank and rehabilitated the old bank vaults. First Valley operated in the bank until February 1974 when it closed its Allentown operations.

After First Valley moved out, the main banking floor remained vacant for many years, although the upper stories of professional offices remained leased. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The monumental 1st-floor banking floor was restored in 1991 by a private investor, who was given a citywide award. It housed an antique market for a few years. However, the February 1994 collapse of the Corporate Plaza office building next door left the building fenced off and inaccessible until its occupancy could be certified as safe. Again, owing to its original design as a much larger building, the sinkhole that caused the demise of Corporate Plaza had minimal effect on the Dime Building structure. Despite this, the economic use of the structure was minimal and it remained largely vacant.

In 2001, the Allentown Hispanic American League of Artists purchased the building to redevelop it into a performing arts center after it was purchased by developer Abraham Atlyeh. However, those plans fell through, and several other redevelopment plans for it fell through in the early 2000s.

It was in 2011 that the building, then owned by New York investor John McClave was acquired by the City of Allentown in a condemnation acttion using eminent domain. The structure was to be incorporated into a new arena/hotel complex. An inspection of the building showed that along with ground reinforcement which was needed to prevent another sinkhole issue that claimed the Corporate Center building in 1998, the bricks and windows of the building were unable to keep water from seeping into the building, along with a new roof. Given both the desire to use the structure in the new complex, as well as its historical status, it was decided to rebuild the old bank in a way that would renew the building as well as keep its 1920s appearance.

Starting in September 2013, the roof and all of the interior walls in the building were removed, along with all of the bricks and windows, basically stripping the Dime Bank building down to its steel frame. The first-floor limestone was kept intact. Once the ground stabilization was performed, the entire exterior of the structure, including new floors and roof was rebuilt with new bricks identical in color to the 1920s bricks. Also, the windows were replaced with modern replicas of the windows which were removed. When rebuilt, it was integrated into the new PPL Center/Renaissance Hotel complex. The Dime Bank Building was used to model the exterior architecture for the new Renaissance Allentown Hotel as well as the One City Center building which holds restaurants and shops, along with the Lehigh Valley Health Network and the PPL Arena building, using the same shade of bricks as well as new limestone to match the 1920s shade of the old bank.

Today, the new Dime Restaurant in the PPL Center, although not in the former Dime Bank Building, memorializes the former bank and the building's history. The main floor consists of the same 26-foot high lobby, which now includes a mezzanine that is used as a lounge area and the main hotel desk. The upper floors include another lounge/library area and a ballroom that connects to the hotel rooms, as well as to the restaurant. Additional floors are used for offices.