Four columns of the portico greet you at Pennsylvania Hall, Gettysburg College's oldest building and its central administrative building. Designed in 1835 by John Cresson Trautwine, it was built in 1838 as a "temple-style edifice with four columns in the portico. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Pennsylvania Hall served as a hospital for wounded troops of the Union and Confederate Armies.
The building still anchors campus ritual: convocation and commencement traditions send students entering and departing via this very hall. The story of the college begins nearby — the 1832 "Pennsylvania College of Gettysburg" initially shared the Gettysburg Academy building on High Street with the Gettysburg Theological Seminary. The college purchased six acres from Thaddeus Stevens for $528, and the hall — four stories and 150 by 45 feet — was constructed with a portico on the south side and a 24 by 17 feet (7.3 m × 5.2 m) feature.
It remained the only academic building until the 1847 Linnæan Hall was dedicated as a museum of Natural History, later the chemistry lab and then a second academic gymnasium. Every convocation and commencement still sends students through these same four columns on the south portico you're passing now.