Staff photo / Ed Runyan Workers take down the final letters spelling out Home Savings on the west-facing side of the icononic downtown Youngstown building Tuesday morning. The new name — Premier Bank— is part of a merger with First Federal Bank of the Midwest in Defiance and integration of the two bank systems. New signage should be in place by July 24.

YOUNGSTOWN — Though the Home Savings Bank building downtown remains, a recognizable part of it– the iconic Home Savings lettering — started to disappear Tuesday.

Gardner Signs of Ohio and Michigan removed the Home Savings lettering from the east and west sides early in the morning. A crew put up scaffolding at the top of the building and took down each letter one at a time.

Lettering on the back of the building will come down starting at 6 a.m. today.

Then, a crew will arrive with two cranes on Monday morning to remove the front lettering on Federal Street. It will require closing West Federal Street while the cranes are in use, said Jeff Prymas, vice president of Gardner Signs.

At the same time, Gardner will install the new Premier Bank signs and logos. The job is expected to be complete by July 24.

A bank spokesperson said after the letters are down from the building, it will be determined whether they will be offered for auction to support a charity.

The new name is part of a merger with First Federal Bank of the Midwest in Defiance and integration of the two bank systems. The 77 branches started adopting the Premier Bank name and new branding in June with the transition expected to done by the middle of this month.

The deal worth approximately $473 million won regulatory approval in January. The new company is projected to have assets of about $6 billion and operations throughout Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Steven Demidovich, 62, who has lived in Youngstown most of his life, said he hopes someone preserves the letters.

“It’s a stable of downtown Youngstown,” he said. “A lot of people bank there. The clock is a landmark for sure. Everyone knows where the bank is because of the clock.”

He said this kind of change reminds him that the State Theater a short ways down West Federal, where he enjoyed seeing rock shows in the 1970s and 1980s, is now a vacant lot.

“It was a place where bands came just before they got big,” he said.

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