Your eyes meet Old Main, Goethean Hall, and Diagnothian Hall, the original buildings of Franklin & Marshall College here in Lancaster. Old Main was built between 1854 and 1856: a three‑story, T‑shaped building with three‑story lateral wings, dominated by a four‑story square entrance tower and five‑story octagonal turrets. The chapel here was enlarged in 1874.
Flanking Old Main are Goethean Hall and Diagnothian Hall, completed in 1857; each rises 2½ stories and shows steeply pitched gable roofs and stepped gables. Together these structures reflect the Gothic Revival architectural style and were recognized on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. During the American Civil War these buildings served as a military hospital, and after the nearby Battle of Gettysburg many wounded soldiers were treated on campus; the soldiers who died are still rumored to haunt the buildings at night, moaning in agony.
Notice the square entrance tower anchoring the center, the octagonal turrets flanking it, and the stepped gables of Goethean and Diagnothian Hall balancing the whole facade.