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Greg Grieco |
The Arboretum at Penn State will be built on an undeveloped,
370-acre parcel of land immediately adjacent to the University
Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University in State College,
Pennsylvania. The property is bounded by Park Avenue (along the
northwest edge of campus), the neighborhoods of College Heights
and Overlook Heights, and Interstate 99 (currently the Route 322/
Mt. Nittany Expressway). A small pine plantation and Big Hollow
Road (at the edge of University farmlands) form the northeastern
border as shown in an aerial
view of the locale.
The Arboretum will be located at the border of USDA Plant Hardiness
Zones 5 and 6, in the northernmost valley of the Ridge and Valley
physiographic province, and surrounded by Nittany, Bald Eagle,
and Tussey Mountains (Click
here for a map of the area). The Arboretum property lies just
a few miles from the geographic center of the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Its geographic location is particularly significant
because The Arboretum at Penn State will be the only institutional
Arboretum within the large central region of Pennsylvania (map
of PA arboreta).
For those familiar with the University
Park campus, the property is accessed most easily from Park
Avenue, along the northwest edge of campus between Shortlidge
and Bigler Roads. In 2008, the University is constructing an entrance
to a parking lot for Phase I of the H.
O. Smith Botanic Gardens. This entrance will be located along
Bigler Road just past the intersection of Park Avenue and Bigler
Road (see the University
Park vicinity).
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Visitors arriving by automobile from distant locations should
exit the Mt. Nittany Expressway at Park Avenue and proceed
southwest to Bigler Road.
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Those arriving from the south on Routes 26 or 45 should take
Route 26 to Whitehall Road/University Drive and thence to
Park Avenue and turn left.
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Those approaching from the University Park Airport should
travel southwest and then southeast on Fox Hill/Fox Hollow
Road to Park Avenue and turn right.
The Arboretum property can also be accessed by foot from the
McKee Street/Clinton Avenue bike path as it traverses Big Hollow,
from Big Hollow Road between the Mushroom Test Facility at the
edge of campus and the Army Reserve Center along Fox Hollow Road,
from the termination of East Aaron Drive in the College Heights
neighborhood, and from Toftrees along the Bellefonte Central Railroad
grade, which passes through over a mile of Arboretum property.
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