A lot has changed at IUP over 135 years.
The pace of physical change accelerated with the 2006 start of the Residential Revival, in which most of the campus’s residence halls have been replaced.
While it’s true that some new buildings have taken the place of old, perhaps not everything is so very different. University Photographer Keith Boyer compared a few campus vistas of today with how they looked in the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties. (In some cases, a tree, or a building, blocked an exact re-creation.)
Click on any image to start a slideshow of all the images.
Students who walked north toward the HUB from Grant Street in the eighties passed Esch (foreground) and Wallace halls on the right and Keith Hall on the left. In the distance, the power plant’s smokestack is visible. Today, only a smidgen of smokestack peeks from above Wallwork Hall’s roof.
In the seventies, students lined up in the Oak Grove to register for Spring semester. The IUP Performing Arts Center can be seen in the background of the contemporary photo. The bench in the foreground is still there.
The Co-op Store (with an O missing on its sign) stood along Garman Avenue, southeast of the main Student Union building. Today, the HUB Fitness Center is there.
There used to be a phone booth at the foot of the stairs from the Oak Grove to Sutton Hall. On the lawn outside Sutton today, with Wallwork Hall in the background, communication still occurs.
Students in the eighties who crossed Grant Street from Sutton Hall and walked toward Maple Street passed Wahr and Langham halls on the left and Turnbull Hall on the right. A little farther west on Grant today, a crossing leads to Delaney Hall at left, Putt Hall at right, and the Suites on Maple in the distance.
In the late sixties, two decades before the Cogeneration Plant was built, there was only one power facility along Pratt Drive, and there were houses on either side of it. About this time, the railroad tracks disappeared from along the street (which had once been called College Avenue). Today, the stonewall parking lot is gone from the west side of Pratt, and Wallwork Hall is to the north in the distance.
Up until the seventies, Sutton Hall extended much farther west than it does now. The section of the building to the right of the downspout in the black-and-white photo was demolished to make way for Stapleton Library. Today, a remnant of the World Trade Center (right) occupies a portion of the space (near the University Museum entrance), along with a granite memorial to those who died on September 11, 2001.
Both photos were taken at the foot of Sutton Hall’s north steps, with McElhaney, Leonard, and Wilson halls on the right. The fire hydrant hasn’t moved.
In the seventies, what once was called a chapel in Sutton Hall was a reading room. In the early eighties, it became Gorell Recital Hall.
In the forties, Grant Street had houses. Sutton Hall would have been at right in this view toward Eleventh Street. Perhaps the same trees stand today along the bank between Sutton Hall and Grant Street. Delaney (foreground) and Putt halls are at left.
To say that IUP in the eighties had ivy-covered halls was an understatement. Today, McElhaney Hall has emerged from its green cloak and sports a plaza that includes summertime flowerbeds.
Gordon Hall is in the background of the photo from the eighties; Whitmyre Hall is out of sight on the right. The Northern Suites residence stands in Gordon’s place today, beyond a piece of art donated by the late Muriel Berman, a member of the State System of Higher Education Board of Governors. Web Exclusive photo
When Esch Hall was fairly new, the trees around Flagstone Theater were small. Keith Hall can be glimpsed on the left in the contemporary view, which also shows the recently named Wallwork Hall. The hedge along the Pratt Drive sidewalk is eternal. Web Exclusive photo
Pratt Drive in front of Keith Hall once accommodated vehicles all the way to School Street. It later became a pedestrian walkway, as shown in the contemporary photo that has the Northern Suites in the upper left and Whitmyre Hall in the center. Web Exclusive photo
Emerging from Davis Hall’s east entrance in the eighties, students saw Mack Hall across Eleventh Street. Today’s students see Delaney Hall and the Suites on Maple in the same location. Web Exclusive photo
In the late forties and early fifties, Breezedale housed male students. In the sixties, when the Kodachrome was made, Breezedale was used for classes. In the eighties, after restoration, it became the campus’s Alumni Center. The sidewalk in the foreground of the current photo connects Whitmyre Hall, nearly out of sight on the right, with the Northern Suites. Elkin Hall is in the background. Web Exclusive photo
More from the Winter 2010 Issue of IUP Magazine
When her life was in turmoil—when she had neither a home nor hope—Lauren Fisher desperately needed salvation. She found it in the strangest of places. A boxing ring.
In Fall 2009, IUP experienced its all-time greatest enrollment. For many of its 135 years, the institution has had remarkably stable numbers, for the most part growing steadily.
Marvin Hamlisch, Bob Woodward, and Bill Strickland, and more
Faculty highlights; awards and honors
IUP’s annual Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony and more athletics news
IUP Magazine Web Exclusives
January 15, 2010
Faculty, staff, and administration at IUP share one vision: academic excellence.
December 15, 2009
For Melissa Rogers, comic books are serious business.
November 14, 2009
Scott McGuire’s diagnosis of ALS brought his TKE brothers together again.