By Kelly Huth
Need a holiday gift for the Lafayette fan in your life? The College Store will soon sell a collectible ornament featuring a replica of Lafayette’s storied Pardee Hall.
The ornament will be featured as part of Easton Main Street Initiative (EMSI)’s historic ornament collection. Each year the nonprofit organization selects a landmark from Easton to feature in the series, such as Easton Farmers’ Market, Peace Candle, State Theatre, and many more. In honor of Lafayette’s Bicentennial, EMSI will include Pardee Hall, a fixture on campus and in Easton since 1873, in the collection.
Ornaments featuring Pardee Hall are set to arrive at the College Store in early November.
“Our ornaments are a small way to hang a piece of Easton on your tree,” says Julie VanOsdol, manager, Easton Main Street Initiative. “Each year they capture something people love about this town, and for a lot of families they’ve become part of their holiday routine. Lafayette College is woven into Easton’s story, so it felt right to celebrate that connection during its 200th anniversary.”
There will be a limited supply of the brass ornaments, which are handcrafted and made in the U.S.A. Ornaments are expected to arrive in early November and will be sold for $25 at the College Store and online at collegestore.lafayette.edu. EMSI also will sell ornaments at Downtown Easton festivals, including PA Bacon Fest and Easton Winter Village.
“Pardee Hall is an iconic building both on campus and in Easton, and we’re excited to collaborate on this project with Easton Main Street Initiative,” says Nicole Eramo, senior adviser to the president. “We hope this ornament offers a unique way for the campus and community to remember Lafayette’s Bicentennial.”
A storied history
Pardee Hall, perhaps the most recognizable edifice on campus, is named for industrialist Ario Pardee. It was designed in the Second Empire style by architect John McArthur Jr., who also built City Hall in Philadelphia.
It has seen two fires, one of which burned it to the ground in 1879, as reported in The New York Times. At its second dedication ceremony in 1880, it drew many luminaries including President Rutherford B. Hayes.
During World War II, Lafayette contributed Pardee’s cast-iron roof railings for the war effort.
Today, the building houses programs in English; foreign languages and literatures; mathematical sciences; philosophy; religious studies; women’s, gender, and sexuality studies; and more. The building is so iconic it even inspired Jon Tsai ’28 to create a replica of the building, made from Legos.
