By Katherine Joyce
Photos by Bethany Haas
A few months ago, back in May, I embarked on creating a bit of a travel piece: to follow the Highlands historic neighborhood tour with my friend, Bethany (Ramble Part One). I was going to write my general observations and thoughts, and she’d capture the spirit of our walk with her camera. We had every intention of wandering for a while, but a heavy thunderstorm rolled over State College, and we were lucky to make it back to her car without being drenched. Late spring in Pennsylvania is unpredictable when it comes to weather, but we’d seen the clouds gathering for the majority of our walk. If you look back at the first installation of this article series, the sky is gray in every picture.
But perhaps it was a good thing that the rain scared us off before we could finish the project, because it meant us coming back in October to finish the job. So much has changed in these last few months. I hardly felt like the same person at all as I met Bethany – who is now my grad school roommate! – for the second leg of our journey. And it seems that time has changed the walking tour, too.
By late October, a long-desired chill had finally swept over the State College community. Over the course of our autumn tour, Bethany and I found ourselves alternating between shivering from the cold and sweating from the heat our layers and all the walking caused. But such is autumn in Pennsylvania! All part of the experience.
We began the afternoon at #18 on the tour map, Chi Phi at 360 East Hamilton Avenue. There were red berries on the trees; they stood out brilliantly against the canvas of a gray sky, much like the flowers back in May. Faint music from somewhere down the street, most likely a fraternity house, mixed pleasantly with the screeching of crickets, a true State College sound if I have ever heard one. Yellow leaves were bursting from the tree branches. We continued on.
Many of the houses were all decked out for the autumn season. Potted mums adorned porches, pumpkins dotted front steps, and little ghosts hung from trees. These decorations only emphasized the welcoming, homey feel that I’ve come to associate with the Highlands historic neighborhood whenever I happen to be passing through. At one house, a stack of logs had been piled near the door, furthering the cozy atmosphere of both the neighborhood and the chilly months to come. At every corner, there are little touches of quaint Pennsylvanian charm. I was particularly enchanted by the street sign for 300 East Hamilton Avenue.
317 East Prospect Avenue became one of my favorite houses on the walk. The tour pamphlet explained that it had been built in 1925, making it a century old (stop #16). It was the colors that caught my attention – beautiful reds, greens, blues, and yellows, bright against natural stone. Nearby, a classic motorcycle, painted yellow and blue, sat half-tucked away. This property seemed like the setting of a movie, and both Bethany and I spent a few minutes gushing over its beauty.
While we were busy being enamored by the colorful house, a handful of fraternity brothers were tossing around a football nearby. The sidewalk was hand-carved with messy Greek symbols. It occurred to me that we’d hardly seen anyone who actually lived in the Highlands on our tour. Rightfully so – it was a gray afternoon. I turned to Bethany and whispered a question: should we interview them?
Our whispered discussion was interrupted by Bethany nearly being hit with a football as it whizzed past. We laughed about it and told the gentlemen not to worry, and while there were genuinely no hard feelings to be had, that wayward football lost those fraternity men chance at five seconds of fame.
This was just one of the many surprises we encountered on our second half of the Highlands tour. While the fall colors were in full glory, shades of pink kept popping up, mostly in potted plants and late-bloom roses. My heeled boots were not ideal footwear for a walking tour… who would have guessed? Me, surely, but I started to develop a blister somewhere near the 100 block of East Prospect. I can’t remember where it was, but I eventually had to stop and adjust my sock while Bethany kept snapping photos further down the sidewalk.
We found a whimsically overgrown lily pond at 524 South Allen, a perfect hideaway that called to mind The Secret Garden. This little oasis matched the magical quality of Camelot, another beautiful find. And near the end of the tour, a bit of blue began to peep through the clouds.
Our tour was unexpected and lovely in so many ways… and this time, we finished it! I think those who live in the historic neighborhood are blessed to do so. There’s beauty hidden behind every corner. At one point in our walk, I spotted a sign in a front window, and I think it ties these two articles together quite nicely: together we are home.
Katherine Joyce is a graduate student at Penn State studying English with a Creative Writing concentration. Though she hails from Schuylkill County, PA, Katherine is proud to come from a “Penn State family” and has fallen head over heels for State College. She loves finding new coffee shops and driving around to explore the natural beauty of the area. When she’s not working or wandering State College, she enjoys movie nights with family and friends, buying flowers, and writing her novels. She can be contacted at kpj5192@psu.edu.
Bethany Haag is a graduate student at Penn State, majoring in Biobehavioral Health. Her research focuses on identifying brain-related structural biomarkers of alcohol use disorder. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Bethany enjoys reading, hiking and drinking coffee. Bethany is an amateur photographer who loves to capture the beauty in the great outdoors of Pennsylvania. She can be contacted at beh5367@psu.edu.