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Penn State Beaver Roar
December 2012
Features
Campus has rich history Monica M. Pitcher Senior Staff Writer
mmp5317@psu.edu
Even though fall 2015 is more than two years away, the campus is already planning its 50th anniversary celebration. Penn State Beaver opened its doors in 1965 on the grounds of a former tuburculosis sanatorium and family farm. In the early 1880s the Hartenbach farmhouse, recently demolished, was located at the front of Penn State Beaver across the street from Monaca Turners and Chapel Road and the barn stood where the Giusti amphitheater is today. The land connected with the farmhouse occupied the entire left side of the campus, from the entrance with the two pillars continuing up the path all the way to the baseball field located next to the Wellness Center. “At the edge of what is now the parking lot for the Brodhead Cultural Center, the Hartenbachs would set up a stand filled with vegetables, eggs, milk and other goods that were to be sold to the public,” said Dave Hunt, supervisor of Physical Plant. The farm also had ponds that flowed from one end of the property to the other that the Hartenbach’s would not only use to harvest ice blocks, but to also float them up and down the property. The farmhouse had been residence to three generations of Hartenbachs, including Ralph and Margaret Hartenbach and their two children, who were the last to live there. Margaret Hartenbach passed away in December of 1998 but shortly before she died, she donated the entire property to the campus. In the early 1900s, a small hotel sat on what is now the lawn area between the Library and the large concrete slab in the center of campus. The hotel was visited by many guests who wished to engulf their bodies in curative spring waters
PENN STATE PHOTO
Penn State Beaver was housed in the former Beaver County Tuberculosis Sanatorium when it opened in 1965. That building, which stood over what is now the concrete slab, was replaced in 2004 with the Ross Administration Building.
What’s the deal with the concrete slab?
Penn State Beaver photo
The Hartenbach’s dairy wagon stands outside the family farm house at the front of what is now the Penn State Beaver campus. The house was torn down last summer after years of standing empty.
running nearby to help rid them of diseases and to restore their health. Unfortunately, the hotel could no longer meet the needs of the diseased due to the coal mines con-
taminating the curative springs. In 1923-24 the hotel’s property came under the ownership of Dr. Fred and Ruth Wilson, who together established the Beaver
Anyone who’s come to the campus after 2004 probably doesn’t remember when the Administration Building was located in the center of campus. It was the old sanatorium hospital building — deemed one of the worst in the entire Penn State system — and was ultimately replaced with the Ross Administration Building, which opened in 2004. Shortly after, the old Administration Building was demolished. But the campus was left with a costly problem to solve: what to do with the information technology
hub that had been located in the basement of the old Administration Building. The cost to move the IT hub was prohibitive, so instead the campus decided to keep it where it was and essentially seal it with the concrete slab. The hub is affectionately called “the bunker,” because entering it feels an awful lot like entering a bomb shelter. As for the slab itself, it’s turned into a nice place to host an outdoor activity, and classes have been known to occupy the picnic benches on it during good weather, from time to time.
County Tuberculosis Sanatorium which was located on what is now the quad in the middle of the campus. The sanatorium occupied 43 acres.
“When the TB patients would pass away, their bodies would first be taken to the lab, which was Campus history See Page 11