2019 Holiday Ornament Features Former Jefferson Security Bank Building

Sara Wasson, Director of Marketing and Community Relations for Jefferson Security Bank, holds the 2019 Historic Shepherdstown Christmas ornament. She is standing beside a portrait of W.N. Lemen, who was president of the bank when the JSB building, featured on the ornament, was built.

2019 Holiday Ornament Features Former Jefferson Security Bank Building

The Historic Shepherdstown Commission has selected the former Jefferson Security Bank building, also known as the Yellow Brick Bank, for their 2019 holiday ornament.

This is the fifth year that Historic Shepherdstown has recognized important local landmarks with production of a brass holiday ornament. Jefferson Security Bank, as part of their 150th anniversary celebration, helped underwrite the 2019 ornament’s cost.

The building, located at the corner of Princess and German streets, was designed and built specifically for the bank. Jefferson Savings Bank, as it was known then, was formed by seven prominent local businessmen and opened on May 19, 1869. The bank moved into the building in 1906, and changed its name in 1909. The building remained the bank’s headquarters until 1975, when it moved to its current location at the corner of Princess and Washington streets. In 2015, the bank was officially recognized as the oldest corporation in West Virginia.

Restaurateur Kevin Connell operated the successful Yellow Brick Bank restaurant in the building for more than 30 years. Today it houses a Mexican restaurant and offices.

As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, Jefferson Security Bank partnered with local organizations and bank employees to perform 150 days of random acts of kindness. “The community is the reason we have been here for 150 years,” said Sara Wasson, the bank’s director of marketing and community relations. “We wanted to give back to the community, and we wanted to do something more than just in May.”

For 150 days, beginning in December of 2018, the bank engaged in community projects large and small that benefitted residents of Jefferson and Berkeley counties. They included providing 150 Christmas gifts to organizations that help children who otherwise would not have received them, delivering donuts to local teachers, and helping out a Charles Town resident who had lost his home in a fire.

“Closing out the year with the Christmas ornament is a perfect fit for us,” Wasson said. “It is a historic building and as part of our anniversary, we put together a history book of the bank. The ornament was a way of carrying our anniversary on throughout the year.”

The ornament is now on sale at the Historic Shepherdstown Museum, located in the Entler Hotel building, which is open on Saturdays (11 a.m.-5 p.m.) and Sundays (1 p.m.-4 –p.m.) through October and during Christmas in Shepherdstown. It is also available through the Historic Shepherdstown office (304-876-0910, open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or [email protected]). The museum is also selling 2015-2018 ornaments, which feature McMurran Hall, the Old Marketplace Building, Rumsey Monument and the Entler Hotel. Closer to Christmas, this year’s ornament will be available at the Jefferson Security Bank office downtown and at the Barron Office on Martinsburg Pike, and other local businesses.