State College vs. University Park

We've gotten some questions about State College vs. University Park. Why is the ceremony in University Park and the reception in State College? What's the difference? Are they are far apart? I thought the wedding was at Penn State? What's the deal? So here are your answers.

No, they aren't far apart. You can walk from the Nittany Lion Inn to the chapel. The Penn State campus has it's own post office, zip code, and post office addresses. This causes lots of confusion. University Park is anything that is on campus. State College is anything that is off campus.

What's the deal with that? Well up until 1953 Penn State was officially "The Pennsylvania State College". In 1953 the name was changed to "The Pennsylvania State University". The president of PSU at the time, Milton S. Eisenhower, tried to get the town to changes its name from "State College" to "State University". They took a vote, but there wasn't a majority winner so the name stayed State College. Milton decided he didn't like that much so he got the university its own post office and zip code with the designation University Park. Since his brother was the President of the United States at the time he had a little bit of pull with the Post Office...

You will also sometimes hear the area referred to as "Happy Valley". Come to a Penn State football game with Gina and I and you'll understand why!

Finally, the Nittany Lion Inn is on campus, but has a State College address. Why? I'm not sure. My guess is because they serve alcohol there and that's not allowed on campus. So it may "technically" be off campus, but that would be in name only.