History Trail, Main Entrance

Most visitors enter the sprawling, 120-plus acre campus through the main entrance, which is marked by pillars, banners, creative landscaping, water features, and a commemorative brick walkway.

Two of the most modern facilities on campus are visible from the entranceway: the Student & Administrative Services Center (to the north) and the Roger and Peggy Madigan Library (to the south).

A focal point of the main entrance is a grand American flag, which serves as a gathering point for events that celebrate campus and community patriotism. Measuring 1,800 square feet, the flag is the largest size permitted on a pole. Private donations provide for regular maintenance of the flag.

The main campus entrance appears on a site, just north of the Susquehanna River, that was part of Williamsport's industrial heritage. For years, the land was home to sawmills, tanneries, foundries, and industrial plants.

Among the companies once located here were Spencer Heater, Division of Avco Lycoming; Lycoming Foundry; Claster Steel Company; Lycoming Construction; and, the last plant to operate on the site, PBI Industries, a structural steel fabricating firm that closed in 1985.

The College purchased the property, removed the rusty skeleton of a massive, once-great industrial structure, and opened the campus to Maynard Street and the adjacent interstate highway.

Development of the site into a formal campus entrance in 1999 led to a revitalization of the Maynard Street corridor as a major, commercial thoroughfare in the city.