University House c. 1897
Penn State University Archives
Built by students, regularly visited by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, and the scene of hostile protests in the late 1960s, University House—which now forms the east wing of the Hintz Family Alumni Center—has a long and storied history.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, University House is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Designed by Penn State’s first president, Evan Pugh, University House served as the residence of 11 Penn State presidents from 1864 to 1970. From 1970 to 2001, it served as a meeting and reception location for University functions before it was renovated and joined to a newly constructed building to become part of the Hintz Family Alumni Center in 2001. This year marks its 10th anniversary.
Construction on University House, throughout most of its history called President’s House, began in the early 1860s. The first president of the Farmers’ High School (as Penn State was originally called) was Pugh, who was an internationally known scientist before he became president in 1859 at the age of 31. The cost of building the house was largely paid by Pugh himself, and students provided the labor, fulfilling the manual labor requirement of their education. Shorty after his marriage to Rebecca Valentine of Bellefonte, Pa., Pugh died of typhoid fever. Unfortunately, Pugh never lived in the house as he passed away eight months before the project’s completion in 1864.
Penn State University Archives
The house has undergone a number of alterations and renovations over the years, including the addition of Bellefonte-milled tongue and groove oak flooring and a third story in the 1890s. During the tenure of President Edwin Sparks (1908–1920), a minor flurry was created when his wife, Katherine, ordered silver wallpaper for the presidential parlors at $10 a roll, an exorbitant price at the time. In a charitable act, Katherine Sparks helped to organize Red Cross efforts during WWI in the President’s House.
University House c. 1939
Penn State University Archives
Another major renovation to the President’s House took place in 1939 when the large portico and columns were added, giving the house a southern plantation look popularized by the movie “Gone with the Wind.”
On the first floor of the house is what is now known as the Atherton Room. Redecorated and refurbished with period antiques in 2006, the Atherton Room is meant to reflect how it might have looked in the 1890s when University President George Atherton lived in the house with his wife, Frances, and their five children. Her nursing rocker, brought to the house in 1882, is featured in the room. The room also features Benjamin Gill’s roll-top desk. Gill was dean of the School of Language and Literature under Atherton and delivered Atherton’s eulogy.
What is now a conference room used to be the dining room of the President’s House. A number of famous people have dined at the house, including: Charles Schwab, Andrew Carnegie, and U.S. President Eisenhower, who visited Penn State several times while his brother Milton served as Penn State’s president from 1950 to 1956. The other first-floor space was the parlor and during the Atherton years, Frances used it to hold school lessons for her children and the children of her friends prior to the existence of State College High School.
University House c. 1965
Penn State University Archives
President Eric Walker (1956–1970) was the last president to live in the house. Student protesters frequently were on the grounds during the turbulent ’60s voicing their opinions on the Vietnam War, minority enrollment and other political issues. President Walker and his family moved out when he retired later that year, and the house was no longer used as a residence. Today, the University President resides at Schreyer House, off Park Avenue.
University House has found new life for the last decade as the east wing of the Hintz Family Alumni Center. Dedicated on April 21, 2001, construction of the Hintz Center both physically and symbolically fused the Alumni Association to the University’s history. The Hintz Center is the first building on the University Park campus specifically designed and constructed to provide a home away from home for Penn State’s more than 557,000 alumni—a place for alumni to return to and relax in.
The $9.5 million structure and its surrounding Alumni Gardens were funded entirely through private donations from more than 430 donors. Named after the family of Alumni Fellow and Distinguished Alumnus Edward R. Hintz ’59, the Hintz Family Alumni Center is also home to the Penn State Alumni Association, the largest dues-paying alumni association in the world with more than 165,000 members. The center also provides a home for two student groups affiliated with the Alumni Association: the Lion Ambassadors and the Blue & White Society.
University House 2011
Designed by architects Linda O’Gwynn ’76 and Thomas Purdy ’83, it was a fitting assignment for the Purdy O’Gwynn Barnhart Architects as Linda and Tom, who later married, met on the University Park campus in architecture studios overlooking the grounds of the Hintz Center.
Surrounding the Hintz Family Alumni Center is the lush Alumni Gardens, providing an oasis on campus with its five distinct gardens and pond. Part of its design and construction was done by 140 students, under the direction of Dan Stearns ’73, professor of landscape contracting. The gardens where completed in two phases and dedicated in 2006. A feature of the gardens is the Alumni Walk, a path that displays bricks and stones inscribed with the names of Penn State alumni. A future addition to the grounds is the newly launched Alumni Courtyard project, which offers alumni another chance to make their mark on Penn State through personalized bricks and stones.
For more information regarding Hintz Family Alumni Center and its history, visit the Alumni Association’s website.
