State College Historic Site

For more than a century, the Hotel State College was the first stopping place for new arrivals to State College. The hotel's history began around 1857 with construction by State College's first resident, Benard McClain of Bellefonte, of a frame dwelling. Room rentals began in the early 1860s, when James Jack of Philadelphia opened what was called Jack's Road House. In 1864, his establishment was registered as the Agricultural College Hotel.

The village's first telephone and telegraph were installed here in 1885. At the start of the hotel's life as The Nittany Inn (1906-1922), it became a four-story brick structure with a "commodious porch;" the original two story hotel was incorporated, having been moved to the south, raised, and encased in brick Businesses of every sort—from bowling and billiards to the State College Federal Savings & Loan—have been in this hotel, whose ownership changed hands several times. The 1939 photograph above shows one of its architectural styles: Queen Anne. An early 1900s business, the Co-operative Book Store, gave this corner its nickname: "Co-op Corner." The Corner Room restaurant arrived in 1926 with new hotel owners Claude Aikens, R.J. Kennard, and Marlin "Matty" Mateer, manager until 1971. Almost immediately, "The Corner-Unusual" was the place to be, just as into the 1930s,



the Hotel State College was the place to stay.

Unique to the Borough, the Hotel State College has come to symbolize State College itself.

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Dale Building
The Foster/Gentzel Building

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