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What is today College Avenue, seen here in 1956, marked the southern edge of the 400 acres the Board of Trustees obtained in 1855 from James Irvin as the site for the new The Farmers' High School. The thoroughfare has served ever since as a line of demarcation between town and campus. There wasn't really a "town" in the early years, just farmland dotted with a few faculty residences. Pigs, sheep, and goats occasionally wandered across the street. By 1896, the community had grown to about 500 inhabitants and was incorporated as a borough. In this photo, taken near the intersection of Pugh Street and East College, the livestock is long gone, wood-frame faculty homes have given way to substantial commercial establishments, and the dirt lane years earlier had been paved over. But two-way traffic still rules. Not until about 1971, with the completion of an upgrade of parallel Beaver Avenue, did College Avenue become one-way..
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