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PENN STATE

By Gerald Bartell

Old Main
Fall-tinted leaves frame Old Main, the most
distinctive building on the campus.
Just before the turnoff to Penn State, Interstate 80 descends into one of its most blissful regions. Gazing at hills stretching high enough to qualify as mountains, visitors can easily imagine they’re airborne, gliding down into the meadows, farmlands, and forests that make up the place locals call “Happy Valley.”

In the fall, the reasons for the name become clear. Alums wing back for warm reunions, villages stage harvest festivals, and the oaks, birches, and hickories on Mt. Nittany turn yellow, red, and bronze.

Fall this year is an especially opportune time to be happy in the valley. Come October, Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions will play three of their season’s gridiron matches away from home—on the 5th, 12th, and 26th, to be exact. That means weekend hotel reservations are a realistic possibility. On home game weekends, rooms are often booked five years in advance, with some establishments using lottery systems to “award” accommodations.

That kind of boomtown atmosphere has surrounded Penn State since it began as an agricultural school in 1855. It became Pennsylvania’s only “Land Grant” institution in 1862 when Congress passed the Morrill Act, which awarded colleges land in return for “liberal and practical education of the industrial classes.” By 1882, Penn State College, as it then became known, was one of the ten largest engineering schools in the U.S. The twentieth century saw growth burgeon. After World War II, the College became a University with its own post office address, University Park. By the start of the new millennium over 40,000 students were enrolling.

The best way to bone up on all this history is to take a walking tour of Penn State’s vast campus. Start at the foot of the Mall, which begins at the stone gates on College Avenue, the street that separates town (State College) from gown (University Park). Not a shopping center, but a wide, handsome walkway, the Mall traverses the center of campus. In autumn, tall, stately elms drape the walk in a canopy of yellow leaves. One of the largest elm stands in the nation, the trees were originally used as an arboretum for teaching and research. (This bit of information comes from one of many informative markers the University’s active alumni association has posted in recent years to annotate a campus visit.)

Heading north, you soon spot Old Main, a broad, stone building with a columned façade and a domed clock tower. Presiding over a wide lawn, Old Main houses the University’s main offices, including that of its president, Graham Spanier. But visitors are welcome to tour the broad entrance area, especially for a look at the “Land Grant” murals. Painted by Henry Varnum Poor in the 1940s, the canvases depict the school’s founding and the growth of classes in agriculture, engineering, and science. Headphones mounted on the walls provide further details.

Old Main
Old Main in the fall.
Other classrooms on the Mall give a sense of Penn State’s history. Schwab Auditorium, adjacent to Old Main, is a beaux arts structure that was completed in 1903 for $150,000, the gift of Bethlehem Steel Corporation founder Charles A. Schwab. Across the street, Old Botany, a charming Richardson Romanesque building with a tile roof, a red brick upper story and a stone first story, is the oldest campus building whose exterior has never been significantly altered. On up the Mall at its northern end stands Pattee Library, named for Fred Lewis Pattee who, after his arrival in 1894, became the first professor of American Literature in the U.S.

Lest a campus tour become too academic, the University offers other, less formal diversions. A few steps behind the Mall, for example, lead one to the Palmer Art Museum. This ten-gallery, post Modern structure contains a permanent collection spanning five centuries of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and works on paper from western and non-western cultures. This fall the Museum presents a special exhibit devoted to the Lewis and Clark expedition, in conjunction with a conference on the subject the University hosts in November.

Next to the Palmer is one of Penn State’s most salubrious spots, the Creamery. A salesroom for products from the University’s dairy sciences program, the Creamery vends cheeses, honey, and, best of all, ice cream. Join the lines that always spill onto the outdoor terrace and wait to order rich scoops of flavors like strawberry fudge bar, swiss mocha chips, and, the number one seller, plain old vanilla.

A visit to the new All-Sports Museum may inspire visitors to work off Creamery calories. Connected to Beaver Stadium, the museum makes it clear football isn’t Penn State’s only sport. Exhibits chart the histories of nineteen athletic teams at the University. Some displays are interactive—you can wrestle with a practice dummy or use a beam to compare your balance with that of famous Penn State gymnasts.

If you leave the museum determined to get in shape, stop off at the McCoy Natatorium and Fitness Loft where visitors may use the large indoor pool and exercise rooms.

If you go...
But in the fall, you’ll probably want to pursue some of Penn State’s more bracing outdoor pursuits. Many consider a hike up nearby Mt. Nittany the primary rite of initiation to “Happy Valley.” Two different blazed trails climb the 2070-foot summit, which affords panoramic views of the University, State College, and the nearby village of Boalsburg.

The University also maintains an outdoor recreation center nearby in Stone Valley. Fourteen miles south of the campus, the forested area includes a 72-acre lake for boating and 25 miles of hiking trails. In October, there will be a moonlight canoe trip and fall foliage hayrides.

Stone Valley has cabins for overnight stays for those who like their lodging rustic. Those who don’t can book a room on campus at the Nittany Lion Inn. The Georgian colonial-style inn, opened in 1931, has been expanded several times, most recently in 1991. Rooms are comfortable and traditional, some of them equipped with Jacuzzis. The Inn’s large dining room serves familiar entrees (steaks, chops, pastas), and its Sunday brunch is very popular.

Lining College Avenue, in downtown State College, are three singular places for one’s three daily meals. Eggs, bacon, and hash browns come at a good price ($2.95) at the Diner, where grilled sticky buns have fueled pre-exam cram sessions for years. On down the street, students and faculty meet at the Corner Room for lunches of club sandwiches, coffee, and gossip. The restaurant is part of the Hotel State College, a Queen Anne style coaching inn built in 1857. The quality of dinners at the Tavern Restaurant has declined somewhat in recent years, but the place remains well worth a stop for an evening meal. The Tavern houses a virtual museum of Penn State and Pennsylvania memorabilia. Historic maps, photographs, and prints decorate the pine walls of the restaurant’s small, cozy rooms.

Shopping in State College means picking your way through a disheartening proliferation of generic stores selling T-shirts, beer steins, mugs and place mats—anything, it seems, that will bear an image of the school’s logo and a football helmet. Shops with more distinctive merchandise can be found, nevertheless. At least half of the paintings, jewelry, and ceramics sold at the Artisan Connection come from central Pennsylvania artists. And Webster Books is that rare gem, a thriving independent bookstore with a rewarding collection of used books. Espresso and herbal tea? Of course. And tumbledown chairs that invite one to leaf through the yellowing pages of a copy of Raymond Chandler’s Lady in the Lake or to listen to local writers, who appear frequently to read from their works.

More elaborate entertainment awaits on campus. The calendar is filled with student dance, music, and theater presentations. Touring companies and major entertainment artists regularly appear at Eisenhower Auditorium and the Bryce Jordan Arena.

State College is ringed by picturesque farm villages, including Boalsburg, just five miles away. Founded in 1806, Boalsburg was a stage stop on the King’s Highway. In 1864, three local women decorated the graves of Civil War victims, the moment becoming the basis for the town’s claim as the birthplace of Memorial Day. (A bronze sculpture of the women statue of the women graces the Boalsburg cemetery.) Twenty-six other U. S. communities make the same claim, however, their sniping over the honor threatened to set off another War Between the States. Still, all remains tranquil in Boalsburg where shade trees frame Victorian homes, many of them now food and gift shops and one of them a bed and breakfast. Duffy’s Tavern, on the town square, serves good lunches and dinners. The Boalsburg Heritage Museum presents a charming collection of country home artifacts gathered over the last hundred years.

For an artifact of your visit to Penn State, a stop at the University’s number one photo op is probably requisite. Adjacent to Recreation Hall stands the statue of the Nittany Lion, a mountain lion that became the Penn State mascot in the 1920s. Alums bring their families here to smile for the camera. Happy Valley makes it easy to do that.

Gerald Bartell is a freelance arts and travel writer based in Manhattan.

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