diff --git a/src/MoleculeDatabase.java b/src/MoleculeDatabase.java
index c421ec8b851c2bbe78fc488728c96f0580a1cf62..57d4a932470e78f1e3850b4628d1e1dd6f2b98be 100644
--- a/src/MoleculeDatabase.java
+++ b/src/MoleculeDatabase.java
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import edu.bu.ec504.project.Molecule;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -85,6 +86,10 @@ public class MoleculeDatabase {
      * Load database from file system
      */
     public void load(String filename) throws IOException {
+        File dbFile = new File(filename);
+        if (!dbFile.exists()) {
+            this.save(filename);
+        }
         FileInputStream fileInStream = new FileInputStream(filename);
         ObjectInputStream objInStream = new ObjectInputStream(fileInStream);
         try {