The trailhead at Mount Nittany gets a little crowded at times.
On nice weekends, people park up and down the small street in Lemont near the trail’s entrance, as they look to climb up the mountain and get a bird’s-eye view of Penn State and the area.
Next to the small parking area at the trailhead sits an old farmhouse that has been a curiosity for many a hiker through the years. The rustic old house has left many people wondering if anyone lives there. Now, the longtime owners of the property, called the Nittany House, have a plan to fix it up and open it as a gathering place and public educational center for people who visit the mountain.
Lenore Loerch raised her family at the house and said she is sad to see it has gone into a state of disrepair. Her husband, a former Penn State professor, was a quiet person who loved his privacy, so the old farmhouse was the perfect place to raise a family and be away from it all.
Her son, Dan Loerch, loved running around in the woods as a child and knows more than most how special the mountain is. He said he loves the natural beauty and diversity of life that can be found in the woods. Now, he is glad to be a part of a plan to keep the mountain moving toward a positive future, and to share it with the people who come to visit it every year.
The family envisions renovating the house into an education center where people can gather, have picnics and talk about their experiences on the mountain. They want it to be a place where hikers can tell stories about their adventures and what they saw out on the trails.
Maybe a group will see a bear on a certain section and want to tell others to be on the lookout. Maybe a hiker will have seen a group of wild turkeys and wants to learn more about the animals. Maybe a young student who hiked the mountain with his or her grandparents will want to learn about how the mountain came to be in the first place and how it got its name.
The Nittany House would be the place where all this could happen.
Along with the education center, the Loerch family said they can see the need for more parking. After years of driving past visitors’ vehicles lined along the street, they want to provide a parking area so the congestion can be eased. They also hope to include a public bathroom on the property, since there are no facilities on the mountain.
The family also envisions a virtual hiking tour for people who are not able to get up the mountain, along with a community garden that would tie the house back to its farmhouse days.
Dan said they hope to restore the old farmhouse to its former glory in order to preserve the history of the building and the community.
The educational opportunities are not just environmental, he said, but also includes the long storied cultural history of the area, and the farmhouse is great example of that history.
The 6-acre property also includes the current family home, so they are working on setting up a nonprofit called The Nittany House
Foundation for just the old farmhouse and 3 acres of the property. But, they are need in of help to make this happen.
The house needs a lot of work before it can become a usable space, and plans are still in their earliest phase. Dan said the paperwork has been started and he hopes to get a GoFundMe page going to get things moving in the right direction. The foundation also will need help in leadership positions in order to for the family’s vision to be fully achieved. Dan said he also is hoping to include as input from families that have lived in the area for years and get their support.
The nonprofit foundation will be separate from the Mount Nittany Conservancy, which manages the land and trails of Mount Nittany, but it plans to work with the conservancy to keep moving the future of Mount Nittany in a positive direction. The conservancy echoed that thought in a statement.
“The Mount Nittany Conservancy is excited to learn of the Loerch family’s vision for the Nittany House. As neighbors with shared interests in promoting and conserving the mountain, we look forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with the Loerch family and the leadership of the Nittany House,” said Eric Loop, president of the Conservancy’s board of directors.
“We hope to work with them to expand the opportunities of their conservancy,” said Lenore.
There is no timeline as this project is still in the developmental works, according to Dan. He recently set up a picnic table at the Nittany House and has been glad to see people gather there during their adventures to the mountain he loves so dearly, and he hopes with community support his family’s vision for the Nittany House can grow.
For more information about the foundation, email Dan Loerch at thenittanyhouse@gmail.com.
