William Clare Allison United Methodist Church (1958-2013)

When the Allison Memorial Methodist Church was destroyed by fire on January 20, 1954, Dickinson College president William W. Edel arranged a trade with the members of the church. In exchange for the site of the destroyed church, adjacent to the President’s House, the College offered a section of the Benjamin Rush campus along Mooreland Avenue, close to the church’s parsonage, for the construction of a new church building. The new Allison Methodist Church, standing on the ground acquired in the trade, was designed by Hensel Fink, and was completed on April 20, 1958. It was constructed at a cost of $850,000, to which the College contributed $200,000. The church design was in keeping with the prevalent style of the College campus, complete with limestone façade; it also boasted of a 150-foot steeple and a sanctuary that could seat 750 people. A small chapel was dedicated to Bishop Fred Pierce Corson, Class of 1917 and former president of the College, for his many years of service to the church. This new building served as a “Church-Chapel” to the College community for some time. The building was sold to the college in January of 2013, and is now a multi-purpose space known as Allison Hall.