From ivy planted at specific corners of buildings to the armillary on Old Main terrace, class gifts often reflect the times in which they’re given. What did the Class of 1861 give in 1890? What did the Class of 2009—graduating in a few weeks—decide to give? What did your class give to Dear Old State?

The class gift is a tradition that dates back more than 100 years, but the gifts themselves and how they’re given has changed over times. Early classes often presented a gift at a later reunion. In more recent decades, classes decide on a gift and solicit donations in the months leading up to graduation. Nowadays, seniors generally contribute to class gifts by pledging all or a portion of their remaining general deposit, the $100 Penn State holds during a student’s enrollment to cover unforeseen expenses, fees, and emergency costs.

Photo by Jordan Ford

The Class of 2009 voted to remove and restore the bronze bell currently housed in Old Main’s bell tower (the tower itself was a gift of the Class of 1904). The plan is to display the bell—which hasn’t rung since the last day of classes in 1929—in a more accessible location on campus. Currently, the bell tower is open just a few times each year, and reaching the top requires a trip up nearly 100 very narrow stairs.

Beloved Landmarks
Many of Penn State’s most recognizable landmarks were class gifts. “The Wall,” which runs in front of Old Main Lawn on the campus side of College Avenue, was a gift of the Class of 1915. For many years, sitting on the wall was a privilege reserved for seniors only. But that custom, along with “dinks” and other forms of reminding underclassmen of their lower status, faded in the late 1960s.

Photo by Chris Koleno

The Class of 1916 presented another of Penn State’s most visible landmarks, the “Main Gates” at College Avenue and Allen Street. (Interestingly, the first stone pillars that stood at that site were purchased from the 1904 St. Louis Expo.) Two classes—1918 and 1925—are credited with the complementary gates at the Pugh Street entrance to campus. Further down College Avenue, the Class of 1987 saw fit to fix up the gateway at Shortlidge Road with curved walls and enhanced landscaping. Another highly visible entranceway to campus, at the corner of Park Avenue at Beaver Stadium, was spruced up with a 70-foot curved stone wall inscribed with “The Pennsylvania State University,” thanks to the Class of 1992.

Photo by Chris Koleno

As landmarks go, it would be hard to outdo the Class of 1940, which gave Penn State its most beloved and recognizable symbol: the Nittany Lion statue that stands near Rec Hall. The site was chosen as a likely spot for pep rallies, given its strategic location between Rec Hall and the southern end of Beaver Field, then the site of home football games, commencement, and other major University events. Though Beaver Field picked up and moved to the east side of campus in 1960 (and became Beaver Stadium in the process), the Lion statue remains in its original wooded site. The statue, which cost approximately $5,000 when Heinz Warneke chiseled it out of a 13-ton block of limestone, narrowly won the vote, 243-225, over the other proposed class gift of a scholarship. The Lion was dedicated at Homecoming in 1942.

Unusual Treasures
Classes sometimes seemed more interested in immediate needs rather than leaving a permanent legacy on campus. Some gifts weren’t even on campus. The Class of 1939 donated $2,000 to build a ski lodge near the site of the present day Tussey Mountain ski slope. The lodge burned in 1948 and was never rebuilt, so the class redirected the insurance proceeds toward the Helen Eakin Eisenhower Chapel. The Class of 1953 donated money to purchase vinyl record albums for a campus radio station, and the 1961 class voted to add a boat dock and landing area at the newly acquired Stone Valley Recreation Area.

Recreation was also on the minds of classes in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Multiple classes pledged money for an ambitious project at the site of the Duck Pond (on East College Avenue just beyond University Drive) that would include a swimming pool, ice skating, ski jumps, and a summer residence for the University’s president (presumably to escape the oppressive summer heat on campus, about a mile away). They got as far as drawing up plans before the Great Depression put the project on ice.

The Class of 1965 purchased a colorful Alexander Calder mobile, “Spring Blossoms,” for $8,500. It now hangs in the Palmer Museum of Art. The next year, the Class of 1966 gave the armillary sphere that sits on the Old Main terrace—itself a gift of the Class of 1913. Armillary spheres were used before the Common Era to measure celestial objects in relation to Earth. The sphere is perched on the back of a turtle, a nod to the Greek god Atlas who held the world on his shoulders. The mythology surrounding the armillary sphere extends to the fact that many Penn Staters are convinced the sphere marks the exact center of Pennsylvania. The idea is logical: the sphere is in the center of Pennsylvania’s land grant University, in the center of the state, and in Centre County. But it’s not true. Geographers have actually tackled this pressing issue and—depending on which maps are used—put the center of Pennsylvania somewhere between State College and Bellefonte, near the fish hatcheries of Fisherman’s Paradise or on the grounds of the State Correctional Institution at Rockview, known to many generations of Penn Staters as the “State Pen.”

Changing Times
Perhaps wishing to mimic the campuses of rivals Penn, Princeton, and other Ivy League schools, classes up through 1929 often dedicated part of their gift for “class ivy” to be planted at strategic spots on campus. The directions could be quite specific, such as the Class of 1911’s “Ivy for the southwest corner of Schwab Auditorium” or the Class of 1909’s “Ivy on the tower of the Armory” (razed in 1964 to make way for an addition to Willard Building). Surviving ivy also adorns Carnegie Building (the library when the Class of 1912 bought ivy for it) and McAllister Building, a dormitory when the Class of 1908 selected it for its class ivy.

In more recent years, class gifts have helped Penn State’s historic elm trees. The Class of 1986 dedicated its gift to six sizeable new elms to replace those lost to Dutch Elm disease. After storms in the early 1990s brought down some of the stately 100-year-old trees, the Class of 1996 established the Elm Tree Endowment for further care, maintenance, and replacement of trees. With the future of all elms now threatened by Elm Yellows disease, the endowment might end up supporting whatever replacement trees are selected.

Ivy and trees aren’t the only gifts altered by time and campus changes. The Class of 1903—at its 50-year reunion in 1953—gave the tall pillars that once stood at the “main entrance” at Pollock Road and Atherton Street. To accommodate the street-spanning IST Building, that intersection was replaced with a new one closer to The Nittany Lion Inn but the pillars were saved. They were relocated to a new gateway at Pollock Road and Burrowes Street, one block from their former location. The Class of 2008 dedicated its gift to giving that new campus entrance by Rec Hall the “gateway treatment.”

The 50 benches given by the Class of 1900 (installed in 1945 and 1946), which lined the mall, live on in newer versions. The original benches of concrete and wood crumbled after many years but were replaced by sleek metal versions.

The very first class gift, however, remains. In 1890, the Class of 1861 gathered for a reunion and presented our alma mater with a portrait of its first president, Evan Pugh. Nearly 120 years later, today’s students and alumni can see that first class gift in the lobby of Old Main.

What did your class give to Penn State? Click here to find out.