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The former Monessen Savings and Trust Building at 500 Donner Ave. in downtown Monessen (also know as Health Mart), has been placed on Preservation Pennsylvania’s 2017 “At-Risk” List.

Former Monessen Savings and Trust Building at 500 Donner Ave

There are ten other properties throughout the state on this year’s list. These will become the organization’s work priorities in 2017. Preservation Pennsylvania is the Commonwealth’s only private statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people protect and preserve the historic places that matter to them.

500 Donner Avenue was home to the Monessen Savings and Trust. It was built in 1905 by Pittsburgh architect Marius Rousseau and was funded by capitalists and investors in the Mon Valley and Pittsburgh region.
The company served the City of Monessen as a commercial hub in banking and business from 1905-1926. The building is a beautiful example of Beaux Arts architecture and is connected to the founders of Monessen, and businesses in the region, including Pittsburgh. It is an imposing and prominent building in downtown Monessen.

The building was added to the at-risk list because of threat of demolition and deterioration. The City of Monessen owns the building and refuses to sell the vacant structure City resident Matt Shorraw has managed to draw attention to Monessen and the project and plans to renovate the building if able to purchase it. He will restore the façade, and create a café, music center, and concert venue in the large, three-story building. Several members of Monessen City Council, including the mayor, insist the building must be demolished.

Shorraw is interested in funding an impartial feasibility study on the building, if the city grants access. That will determine how much work is needed to save the building, and whether or not demolition can be avoided, so city money is not wasted on an unnecessary demolition. The listing at the state level will bring Monessen and the building in to the statewide spotlight, showcasing this wonderful work of architecture that should be preserved for future generations.

In 2015, the building was listed at #8 in the Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh’s Top Ten Preservation Opportunities in the Pittsburgh Region, and in 2016, the building was deemed “conditionally historic”, by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, pending a façade restoration. Other interested groups include Preservation Pittsburgh, as well as the National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington DC.

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