UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A page of the 1916 La Vie yearbook shows a photograph of the Allen Street mall from the Old Main bell tower, a view from one hundred years ago, when Penn State was still the Pennsylvania State College. Enrollment that fall was 2,624.
At far left is the Main Engineering Building, which was destroyed in a fire only two years later — today’s Sackett Building is in its place.
A glimpse of the train station, a low building near the center of the photo, can be seen to the right of Main Engineering Building. Hammond Building now occupies the former site of the station, which was once part of the Bellefonte Central Railroad. Continuing right, next to the station, are the nearly identical Engineering Units D and E (demolished in 2005).
The stone house to the right of center is University House, at the time still the home of Penn State’s presidents and today part of the Hintz Family Alumni Center. Behind it is Engineering Unit F, which was torn down in 1952. In the lower right corner is a more familiar landmark — the Obelisk — which still stands today.