Welcome to TBT — Throwback Thursday — where we take a look at historic images from the State College area and Penn State.
This photo from the Penn State Libraries University Archives shows in the distance the original Old Main, with the old Chemistry-Physics Building and faculty residences to the right. The view comes from what would today be approximately East Beaver Avenue near Locust Lane. The view from 120 years ago is far different today.
Few if any of the structures here still exist today. Though Old Main remains one of Penn State’s most recognizable icons, the building pictured here, which was completed in 1863 with the help of students and was a center of campus living and learning, was torn down in 1929 because of structural deficiencies. The current Old Main was completed in 1930, using some of the limestone from the original building. Classrooms, labs, libraries and living quarters were all once housed in the original Old Main. Those have of course expanded far across campus, and Old Main today is home to administrative offices.
The Chemistry and Physics Building, meanwhile, was later called Walker Laboratory. It was torn down in 1969 and replaced by Davey Laboratory.
Old Main Viewed from Downtown, 1890s (Photo Courtesy of Penn State University Archives)
