LEHMAN TWP. — Penn State Wilkes-Barre is gearing up to celebrate a century of matriculation in the Wyoming Valley next month.
Penn State Wilkes-Barre has inhabited Luzerne County since November 1916, making it the first higher education institution to establish itself in the Wyoming Valley.
On Nov. 5, Penn State Wilkes-Barre will return to its downtown Wilkes-Barre roots to kick off a year-long celebration honoring the centennial milestone at the F.M. Kirby Center For The Performing Arts at 71 Public Square in Wilkes-Barre.
During the invitation-only event, Nittany Lion statues will be given to the Wilkes-Barre Rotary, Wilkes-Barre School District and The Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce for their pivotal role in bringing the university to the region.
“In 1916, the Wilkes-Barre Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter to Penn State and asked them to offer courses in Wilkes-Barre particularly related to (coal) mining and those types of activities,” Penn State Wilkes-Barre Chancellor Charles Davis, said.
At the time, Penn State had no dedicated facility to hold classes in the city. They were allowed to use Coughlin High School, he said.
As local demand for higher education grew, Penn State sought out bigger facilities for classes.
At one time, the university’s satellite campus occupied the former Guthrie School building in Wilkes-Barre, said Rachel Rybicki, a marketing and communications specialist at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
“For the first 50 years or so it (Penn State Wilkes-Barre) was downtown,” Davis said.
In the 1960s, a gift of Hayfield House and 50 acres of land in Lehman Township was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Richard I. Robinson of Greenwich, Connecticut. Richard Robinson was a nephew of Bertha Conyngham, original owners of the property.
The generous gift provided the university a permanent location with room to grow.
Photographs
Over the summer, Rybicki and two librarians at Penn State Wilkes-Barre retrieved 34 boxes of photographs, slides, video and microfiche from the third floor of Hayfield House.
“They (photographs) span the time at Coughlin, Guthrie and in Lehman,” Rybicki said.
The materials will be digitally scanned and laminated to create a traveling photo history of Penn State Wilkes-Barre, she said.
The black and white snapshots reveal a historical glimpse of the university’s local development.
The photographs show small classes of 10 to 20 clean-shaven, well-dressed young men sitting at desks with their heads down jotting down notes.
In the 1960s and ’70s, class sizes increased showing nearly 40 students in a classroom.
Today, Penn State Wilkes-Barre Campus has an enrollment of about 550 students, Davis said.
“We want to celebrate all that Penn State has done for the community,” Davis said. “Penn State Wilkes-Barre started out teaching (coal) mining technology and now offers full-service education.”
New areas of study were added to the Penn State Wilkes-Barre curriculum this year, including rehabilitation and human services, corporate communications and accounting to the business program, Davis said.
“We have hired new faculty who will reach into the community even more,” Davis said. “For example, we have a new astronomy professor and so I think we will see more activity at the Friedman Observatory.”