For years, it sat empty and unused alongside the jap 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 instances, 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 Group 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 fashioned 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 positioned in a ranch-style home on Jordan Street, has moved into a brand new headquarters fashioned by the wedding of that 19-century brick home with a contemporary steel-and-glass construction to create an 11,000,square- foot advanced.
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 foremost donor on this challenge,” Ford mentioned. “With out his help and with out his imaginative and prescient it might not have occurred.”
Hagen not solely provided funding, he supplied the thought, Ford mentioned.
“The constructing has sat right here on campus and we now have been on the lookout for a use for it for over 30 years,” Ford mentioned. “We had considered it earlier than he approached us, however we didn’t have the precise imaginative and prescient.”
Ford mentioned he likes that the constructing is without doubt one of the first issues drivers see as they move by on the Bayfront Connector. He additionally likes what this system says a couple of campus typically recognized for its engineering and enterprise packages.
“It means so much,” Ford mentioned. “It is a kind 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 over time since.”
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In the present day, CORE is targeted on a broader mission, to review and develop “issues that youth have to develop up and performance at a excessive stage,” Hodge mentioned.
That is finished via mentoring packages in Erie County center and excessive colleges.
Generally, “We take the present on the street. We have now faculty districts that may enroll and we are going to write a yr’s price 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 might be revamped time. They contract with us to study this system. We develop and design measures, accumulate knowledge, and share findings.”
This system’s analysis part provides one other layer. Hodge mentioned.
“It is an in-shop analysis workforce the place we will 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’ll present area to host occasions and welcome individuals onto campus. The brand new advanced features a convention room, casual gathering area, 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 area that surrounds the constructing, has area to double the present employees of eight folks.
“We had been challenged from the begin to construct for the longer term, form of a “Area of Desires” idea,” Hodge mentioned. “It was essential to the donor that we weren’t at max capability and we might develop.”
Hagen saves one other one
Hagen, who’s well-known for his preservation efforts, mentioned he has lengthy believed that the Federal Home must 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.
But it surely 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 linked to the trendy construction. “I feel that they’ve finished an excellent job with it.”
One piece of dwelling historical past, a black walnut tree positioned close to the brick Federal Home, needed to be eliminated to make approach 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 big 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 will by no means have occurred to me,” Hagen mentioned. “I’m very pleased with the way it turned out.”
Ford mentioned he has been impressed by the transformation.
“It was in very unhealthy form,” he mentioned. Even after doing the work wanted to stabilize the constructing, “There was no ground. You possibly can look down within the basement aside from a couple of floorboards. It was in horrible form.”
The renovation and enlargement have modified that.
“Whereas the addition is trendy 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].