East End Social ended its first season Saturday night with music, dancing and community gathering on Hiester Street as the Downtown State College Improvement District celebrated the close of the pilot project.
The block party featured live music, food vendors, a partnership with Happy Valley Latin Fest, salsa lessons and a DJ. Attendees were also able to take home free flower bouquets made from the planters that filled the temporary downtown pocket park throughout the summer.
The closing event marked the end of a season for the outdoor, pedestrian-only plaza that included more than 30 events held in the space, including block parties, community events and World Cup watch parties.
Downtown State College Improvement District executive director Lee Anne Jeffries said the project exceeded expectations after the community quickly embraced the temporary public space.
“I think we were all very pleasantly surprised by the success and the way that the community embraced the project from day one,” Jeffries said. “I think we knew, and we’ve been hearing about the desire for this kind of pocket park for years, if not decades, here in downtown State College, but to really see the community come out in a way that truly supported the efforts has been really heartwarming actually, and has kind of proven the the viability of this project and the fact that the pilot is now almost completed and under our belt, so we can start planning for for future years. So, all very positive impacts, I think, for the community and for downtown businesses as well.”
East End Social transformed part of Hiester Street into a seasonal gathering space with seating, landscaping and room for community programming. The project was designed to create another place for residents and visitors to spend time downtown while supporting nearby businesses.
Jeffries said the project’s success came in part from community members and organizations taking ownership of the space and creating their own events.
“It’s really been a joy to see how people have embraced the space and what events they’ve decided to bring, and the crowd that would come to those, and many of them or most of them, were open to the public,” Jeffries said. “So it’s just been a really great experiment…Some really creative ideas kind of came out of some of this programming.”
One of those moments came during the FIFA World Cup, when East End Social hosted watch parties that brought crowds into the street.
“It was a place for people to come together and be in community,” Jeffries said. “We just want to keep it going, and we hope everyone will come out for it again next year.”
The season also brought unexpected additions, including a trinket trading box created after a community member suggested the idea. The box became a popular feature of the space and will remain downtown after East End Social closes. It will move to outside the Downtown State College Improvement District office in the Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza.
As the pilot season ended, Jeffries said the improvement district will begin reviewing data from the project, including foot traffic, event attendance and the impact on downtown businesses.
“Those are really important for us to continue to look ahead to the future because in the end our mission is to support the businesses for a vibrant downtown, and so we want to make sure that they’re seeing the benefit of this as well,” Jefferies said.
The district plans to continue East End Social in future years, with discussions for the 2027 season expected to begin soon. Jeffries said organizers may extend the dates of the project after learning from the first year.
The improvement district will also look for additional funding opportunities to support future programming. A state grant helped fund the infrastructure of the space, but Jeffries said more funding will be needed for entertainment and events.
“I think we’ve got a great model, and I think we’ve got a wonderful model to share with other communities,” she said. “People are looking to us to see what this is about and what the outcomes will be, so that’s very exciting.”
Jeffries hopes the community continues to support the project in future summers.
“Hopefully people will still be as energized next year as they were this year,” she said. “We’ve had lots of requests for people, like this should just be year-round, and we know that we don’t have the most forgiving winter here, so I’m not sure they would get much use. But I do think it’s nice as a something that people can look forward to in the summer, and it truly is kind of a gift to the community, to the people that are full-time residents here that have something to look forward to.”
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