For years, it sat empty and unused alongside the japanese fringe of Penn State Behrend’s campus in Harborcreek Township.
Whereas the township’s oldest brick home — in-built 1838 — crumbled outdoors, squirrels scattered walnuts inside. In earlier occasions, the constructing that Behrend dubbed Federal Home had been a stagecoach cease and a secure home on the Underground Railroad.
Now, 34 years after Larry and Kathryn Smith donated the property to Behrend, the 184-year-old construction has a brand new look and a brand new objective.
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Following a $6.6 million restoration and enlargement, the home the place cobbler Thomas Bonnell and his spouse Eva raised 9 youngsters is now the house of the Susan Hirt Hagen Middle for Neighborhood Outreach, Analysis, and Analysis or CORE
Named for and endowed by the late Susan Hirt Hagen, a long-time board member of Erie Insurance coverage, which was co-founded by her father, HO Hirt, CORE was shaped in 1998 to deal with issues about teen being pregnant in Erie County.
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New constructing, broader mission
The mission has been expanded together with the constructing, mentioned James Hodge, an assistant professor of psychology and director of CORE
This system, which had been situated in a ranch-style home on Jordan Street, has moved into a brand new headquarters shaped by the wedding of that 19-century brick home with a contemporary steel-and-glass construction to create an 11,000,square- foot complicated.
Erie Insurance coverage Chairman Thomas Hagen, whose late spouse endowed this system, joined forces with Penn State Behrend to fund the renovation and enlargement.
Behrend Chancellor Ralph Ford mentioned Hagen requested that no particulars be supplied concerning the actual quantity of his contribution.
“He was the main donor on this undertaking,” Ford mentioned. “With out his assist and with out his imaginative and prescient it might not have occurred.”
Hagen not solely equipped funding, he supplied the concept, Ford mentioned.
“The constructing has sat right here on campus and we now have been searching for a use for it for over 30 years,” Ford mentioned. “We had thought of it earlier than he approached us, however we didn’t have the correct imaginative and prescient.”
Ford mentioned he likes that the constructing is without doubt one of the first issues drivers see as they cross by on the Bayfront Connector. He additionally likes what this system says a couple of campus typically identified for its engineering and enterprise applications.
“It means loads,” Ford mentioned. “It is a type of nice tasks that has been nice from starting to finish. This highlights the nice work that’s being finished by the Susan Hirt Hagen CORE Middle.”
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Essential to the household
Hagen, whose portrait hangs within the convention room, mentioned he stands by this system’s mission.
“It has been essential to our household and to my spouse, who was actually the founding father of it,” Hagen mentioned. “It was one thing that was very close to and pricey to her. It is actually blossomed through the years since.”
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At the moment, CORE is targeted on a broader mission, to check and develop “issues that youth must develop up and performance at a excessive stage,” Hodge mentioned.
That is finished via mentoring applications in Erie County center and excessive colleges.
Most often, “We take the present on the street. We have now college districts that may join and we are going to write a 12 months’s value of curriculum to mentor college students,” Hodge mentioned.
“We work with colleges and nonprofits,” he continued. “To illustrate they need to know does it work or what enhancements may very well be revamped time. They contract with us to find out about this system. We develop and design measures, acquire information, and share findings.”
This system’s analysis element provides one other layer. Hodge mentioned.
“It is an in-shop analysis staff the place we are able to take a look at the efficacy of our personal programming,” he mentioned.
CORE’s mission will not change
The brand new constructing will not change CORE’s mission, however it should present house to host occasions and welcome contributors onto campus. The brand new complicated features a convention room, casual gathering house, a big multipurpose room, and a sprawling workspace for college students.
The brand new headquarters for CORE, which provides sweeping views of Station Street and the inexperienced house that surrounds the constructing, has house to double the present employees of eight folks.
“We had been challenged from the begin to construct for the long run, sort of a “Subject of Desires” idea,” Hodge mentioned. “It was essential to the donor that we weren’t at max capability and we may develop.”
Hagen saves one other one
Hagen, who’s well-known for his preservation efforts, mentioned he has lengthy believed that the Federal Home needs to be repurposed. Years in the past, Hagen mentioned, he helped persuade former Behrend Provost John Lilley to take steps to protect the constructing by Changing the roof, restoring the masonry and putting in new home windows.
However it was solely just lately that the constructing was pressed into service.
“I feel it is a good marriage,” Hagen mentioned of the previous brick constructing that is now related to the fashionable construction. “I feel that they’ve finished a very good job with it.”
One piece of residing historical past, a black walnut tree situated close to the brick Federal Home, needed to be eliminated to make manner for the brand new. However the tree lives on in Federal Home, now configured as a big convention room that is open to the second ground.
The tree has been reduce and milled into large slabs to construct a convention desk, cowl the ground with darkish hardwood planks and shroud metal beams with wooden.
“Taking out the second ground was one thing that might by no means have occurred to me,” Hagen mentioned. “I’m very proud of the way it turned out.”
Ford mentioned he has been impressed by the transformation.
“It was in very dangerous form,” he mentioned. Even after doing the work wanted to stabilize the constructing, “There was no ground. You would look down within the basement aside from just a few floorboards. It was in horrible form.”
The renovation and enlargement have modified that.
“Whereas the addition is fashionable and the Federal Home is previous, we predict we got here up with a profitable mixture,” Ford mentioned. “I feel it has been very effectively finished.”
Jim Martin could be reached at [email protected].
