The three story brick building includes many traditional classrooms for lectures.
The General Studies Building is where the majority of classes at Penn State Mont Alto are held.The building is now home to the Student Center, Student Affairs offices and the archives. Conklin Hall was originally built as a dormitory by students of the forestry school starting in 1909 and completed in 1911.Penn Gate I offers a similar four-person suite living accommodation that is provided at Penn Gate II. However, it was reopened for the 2006–2007 school year. Located directly adjacent to Penn Gate II, Penn Gate I was not in use during the 06 school years due to low enrollment. Penn Gate I is a third residence hall offered at Mont Alto.Penn Gate II is located east of PA 233, and is a fairly long walk (5-10 minute) to campus. Each room is carpeted and also includes a central air conditioning unit.
The four-person suite includes two spacious bedrooms as well as a bathroom that is shared by all four people in the suite. While halls themselves are not gender specific, each individual suite is. Similar to Mont Alto Hall, the building is three stories tall. Penn Gate II offers four-person suite living.This hall is a mere 4-5 minute walk from virtually anything on campus, with the exception of the Penn Gate dorms and other parts of the campus east of PA 233 (softball fields, etc.). Mont Alto Hall also includes a basement with washers/dryers and study rooms. Every wing of the building includes a bathroom that the entire hall shares, making for two per floor. The "Microfridge", a combination microwave and refrigerator, is standard as well. Each resident is provided with a desk, a phone jack, an Ethernet connection, a dresser, and a closet. The rooms are not carpeted, and lack a central AC unit. Each room holds two people, although it is possible to obtain a single room given certain circumstances. All three floors of the building are broken up into an east and a west side, with only one gender belonging to a particular wing. Mont Alto Hall offers traditional dorm life.Penn State Mont Alto offers three residence halls to students: Mont Alto Hall, Penn Gate I, and Penn Gate II. In 1997, Mont Alto joined the Commonwealth College, and began to offer baccalaureate degrees. In 1963, Penn State Mont Alto became a Commonwealth Campus. The campus closed from 1943 to 1946 because the students and faculty were fighting in WWII. Students were adamantly opposed to the merger, and they protested by hanging two state officials in effigy. In 1929 the Forest Academy merged with Pennsylvania State University, establishing Penn State Mont Alto. It was published in 1914, 1920, 19, and may now be viewed online through the Pennsylvania State University Libraries along with other items documenting the history of this campus. The yearbook of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy was called "The Oak Leaf". The horses were used to fight forest fires in the Michaux State Forest. All first year students were required to bring a horse with them to the academy until the late 1920s. George Wirt, the academy's first administrator, patterned the curriculum after curricula in Germany. With the precipitous closure of the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell in the same month, the new Pennsylvania school became one of three forestry schools in the nation, along with Yale and Biltmore. Pennypacker, governor of Pennsylvania, established the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy in Mont Alto. Joseph Rothrock, an explorer, botanist and medical doctor founded the academy to train men for service in the state forests. History Pennsylvania State Forest Academy