The Penn State Wilkes-Barre campus could soon have a new owner.
The university’s Board of Trustees will consider proposed real estate transactions involving both the Wilkes-Barre and Shenango campuses at meetings this week.
The board will hold committee meetings on Thursday and a full board meeting on Friday.
“The university will share more information about these two transactions in conjunction with those public meetings,” the school said in a statement Tuesday.
Meanwhile, members of the Wilkes-Barre campus’ advisory board have received no information about the future of the 54-acre estate in Lehman Twp., Chair Jill Schwartz said.
“I’m in shock,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Closing in the spring
Trustees voted in May 2025 to close seven campuses, including Wilkes-Barre, due to dwindling enrollment and fiscal challenges. The Hazleton, Schuylkill and Scranton campuses had also been considered for closure but were spared.
The Wilkes-Barre campus will close for good at the end of the spring 2027 semester.
Historic campus
Penn State describes the campus as being “13 miles west of Wilkes-Barre on a beautiful, park-like estate.”
The school traces its history back to 1916, making it the oldest higher educational presence in the Wyoming Valley.
In the mid-1960s, Richard and Helen Robinson of Connecticut gave Hayfield House and the surrounding farm property in Lehman Twp. to the university. Coal baron John N. Conyngham and his wife, Bertha, built the house in the early 1930s. It was valued at approximately $1 million at the time of construction.
Penn State converted the mansion into administrative offices and classrooms. The former 19-car garage now houses the student commons and bookstore. A 15-acre wooded walkway displays a wide variety of trees and shrubs, some imported from Europe.
The campus also includes the Athletic and Recreation Building, the Science Building, the Bell Center for Technology, the Friedman Observatory, the Murphy Student Services Center, the Struthers Family Career Services Center and the Nesbitt Academic Commons.
