Old Main - Where the Farmers' High School Began

Photo: Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Penn State University Park Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

Start in front of Old Main, the bell-towered building that is the symbol of the whole university. The first Old Main was finished in 1863 to hold almost everything the young school needed: classrooms, labs, a chapel and rooms for 400 students. Its limestone was quarried from the land right in front of it, much of it hauled by a mule named Old Coaly.

By the 1920s that building was no longer safe, so it was taken down in 1929 and rebuilt on the same footprint the next year, reusing some of the original stone. Today it holds the president's office and other administrative offices.

If the doors are open, step into the lobby to see the Land-Grant Frescoes, painted by Henry Varnum Poor beginning in 1940 and expanded in 1948. They celebrate the school's founding promise of practical education for ordinary Pennsylvanians. Back outside, look up at the tower: its chimes mark the hours across campus.

Getting here: The tour begins on the lawn in front of Old Main, at the top of Pattee Mall off Pollock Road.

Did you know?: Old Main's original bell, cast in Boston in 1871 and given by the class of 1904, now sits on display near the building.

Photo op: Walk partway down the lawn toward College Avenue and turn around to frame Old Main's columns and bell tower with the lawn in front.

More on Wikipedia: Old Main · Henry Varnum Poor · Morrill Land-Grant Acts · Old Coaly

Old Main - Where the Farmers' High School Began

Stops on this tour