How old is Old Main? Also: a skeletal mule, and a shining example of Poor artwork

"OLD MAIN: Built in 1930, using limestone blocks from the first Old Main, completed on this site in 1863. The original building housed classrooms, offices, laboratories, and student and faculty living quarters. It also served, as does its successor, as Penn State's administrative center. Inside are the famous land-grant frescoes by Henry Varnum Poor."

Everybody who has been on the University Park campus long enough is at least vaguely aware of Old Main, whether passing by it on the way to class or hearing its bell chime every quarter-hour. It's a standard fixture of the campus, and its architectural design evokes the grandeur that comes with the university's history. One might think that this building has been around since the founding of the college itself.

This isn't quite right. Although Penn State was once centered around Old Main, it wasn't the same Old Main we know today.

This is the building that everybody associates with the name "Old Main". With its prominent location on campus, it's surely a sight you've seen before. However, this spot was once taken by a different building. Built in 1863 after six years of work (Penn State University itself having been founded just a few years earlier in 1855), the original Old Main was simply called the Main Building, since obviously it hadn't had the time to become old yet. The "Main" part of the name is definitely fitting, though; as the building where virtually every campus facility was located, from residence halls to classrooms and offices, it was essentially synonymous with the University Park campus itself. Even the construction of the building was largely local, the structure being built using limestone gathered from the area immediately around it and hauled to the site by mules, including Old Coaly, who you may know as "that spooky scary skeleton in the HUB". 

If you've read the sign located conveniently next to the spooky scary skeleton in the HUB, you may know that Old Coaly was a hard worker, beloved by the students in those days and held as an unofficial mascot for the university. While the community's love wasn't enough to earn our sports teams the name of "Penn State Mules", there was enough support for him that after Old Coaly's death in 1893 his skeleton was preserved for future generations, being housed in Old Main itself at first (this was around the time that the building acquired that name). The Wikipedia page on Old Main informs us that "since his death, his skeleton has taken residence in many Penn State buildings", and since I've been unable to find a reason why the skeleton has been housed in multiple buildings, based on this sentence I can only conclude that Old Coaly's skeleton, just as hard a worker in death as in life, continued to walk around campus by itself, finally trapped and sealed inside the glass case in the HUB for fear of what would happen should he become hostile and turn on the university that once loved him. (That's probably not the real reason, but I like my story better.)

Old Coaly's tremendous effort toward our school certainly paid off in the short term. The finished Main Building held classrooms, offices, residence halls, and all the assorted rooms that Penn State needed to be a full university. Even sports teams used its lawn for a field. Sadly, the heavy use that the building went through during the late 1800s and early 1900s, as well as a fire that damaged the roof in 1892, resulted in the original building being declared structurally unsound and unfit for renovation in the 1920s. The old Old Main was demolished in 1929 to make way for a new Old Main in 1930, which is the Old Main that we know today. (This makes the current building about 85 years old now, if you were still wondering.) The new building continued to be a major center of student activity, but as time passed and the campus expanded, its roles were largely supplanted by newer structures.

By now, Old Main's livelihood has declined sharply since its glory days. While it was once full of students living, learning, and working throughout its rooms and halls, nowadays few if any student organizations and classes meet inside the building. The wide lawn is still a fairly popular spot for gatherings and tourist photos, but it is not the same as it was back when Old Main was the true center of the campus. Its former roles are taken up by the HUB as well as other buildings devoted to residence, classrooms, and college life. Most of the people who still use the building are administrators who run the university from their offices.

Naturally, there's some pretty sweet paintings inside there that few people will see.

This is part of the "land-grant fresco" mentioned on the sign, painted by famed fresco artist Henry Varnum Poor with assistance from his daughter Anne and loads of cash from grateful students. The entire painting took ten years to make, although it was not a continuous process; the first portion was begun in 1939 and finished in 1940. Poor's work was far from poor work, so Penn State students took it upon themselves to raise funds to get Poor to return and paint more frescoes on more walls inside the building. Unfortunately, like most cool projects started in 1940, these efforts were totally derailed by the coming of World War II, and it would not be until 1949 that the paintings could be completed.

The paintings, celebrating Penn State's history from its founding on land granted by the state of Pennsylania to the vibrant campus life and student activities toward the end of the 1940s, were universally judged to be awesome, which is why it's a shame that so few activities take place in the Old Main building now. There is good news, though: this part of Old Main is open for viewing during business hours, from 8 AM to 5 PM on Monday through Friday, so that curious students can see Poor's rich artwork for themselves. You can also see some pictures of the frescoes on the Penn State website, but if you happen to have the time in your busy college schedule, please take a moment to check out this beautiful part of Penn State history for yourself.