Penn State Hospitality Services
supports Centre County 'mecca'

“We are very proud of our relationship with the Center for the Performing Arts,” says Fran Levin, director of sales and marketing for Penn State Hospitality Services and a new member of the Center for the Performing Arts Community Advisory Council. Levin agreed to join the council because she believes in what the Center for the Performing Arts brings to the community. “I was very flattered to have been asked to be on the committee,” she says.

The Center for the Performing Arts and Hospitality Services both pride themselves on excellent service and a commitment to broadening the cultural experience of central Pennsylvanians, Levin asserts. Hospitality Services, a Platinum-level sponsor of the Center for the Performing Arts, offers the Penn State community and its visitors two premier facilities, The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus and The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel at Penn State’s Innovation Park.

This year, The Nittany Lion Inn celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary. The Inn, which opened in May 1931, has undergone a number of changes through the years. A 1953 addition brought a new wing and a coffee shop. A 1992 project nearly doubled the number of guestrooms and added a gift shop, a fitness room, and Whiskers lounge. In 1994, renovations updated the original 1931 sections of the building.

The Inn’s charm, Levin says, stems from its long-standing history at Penn State along with the traditional style and ambience that has been preserved.

Dubbed “Penn State’s Living Room” by Eric Walker, the University’s twelfth president, the Inn now caters to approximately 100,000 overnight guests per year. Guests who have stayed at the Inn include everyone from students’ parents to high-profile politicians and celebrities. Every Pennsylvania governor since 1931 has visited the Inn, along with Hubert Humphrey, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Frost, Louis Armstrong, Billy Joel, Britney Spears, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, and many others.

In alignment with Penn State’s colors, the brick Inn is painted bright white with dark blue trim. In 2000, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Inn one of the 145 Historic Hotels of America for preserving its historic integrity.

The Penn Stater—quite different from but complementary to The Nittany Lion Inn—is the largest and most technologically advanced conference center hotel in the area and flaunts spectacular views of Nittany Valley, Levin maintains.

Hospitality Services is a longtime supporter of the Center for the Performing Arts, in part due to their interlocking roles on campus. A weekend in State College is more special when staying or dining at The Nittany Lion Inn or The Penn Stater and catching a performance at Eisenhower or Schwab auditorium, Levin says.

“It is a cultural mecca of Centre County,” she says of the Center for the Performing Arts. “It’s something that everyone should take advantage of.” The same could be said of The Nittany Lion Inn and The Penn Stater.

—Brady Dollard