Old Botany Building - A Survivor from 1887

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

This small stone building with its rounded arches was built in 1887 and 1888 for the botany department. It went up when the campus was little more than Old Main and a few farm buildings, and it was the first building on what would become the upper mall. Greenhouses were once attached to it, and a formal garden spread out in front.

Old Botany is designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, popular in the 1880s for its heavy stonework and deep-set arches. While Old Main was torn down and rebuilt, this building kept its outside largely as it was, which makes it the oldest building at University Park still looking much as it did on opening day. The university named it a historic landmark in 1962.

The inside has been changed many times, and today it serves as offices. Take a moment to compare it with the grand 1930 Old Main next door: two eras of the same school, side by side.

Getting here: Walk back through the gates and follow Pattee Mall up past Old Main, about 5 minutes, to the small arched building on your left.

Did you know?: The walk that once ran beside Old Botany was lined with trees and known on campus as the Ghost Walk.

Photo op: Frame the building's arched entrance from the mall, with the elm branches overhead.

More on Wikipedia: Pennsylvania State University · Richardsonian Romanesque

Old Botany Building - A Survivor from 1887

Stops on this tour