The Penn Alto Building is a landmark building located in downtown Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA. The building is nine stories high and has a partial tenth floor penthouse. The name of the building remains the same, even though its usage has changed over time. The name changed from the Penn Alto Hotel to Penn Alto Apartments when it changed from strictly being a hotel to a residential hotel, which rents both apartments and hotel rooms. The current name is City Hall Commons, deriving its name from its proximity to City Hall, which is just across the street.
The building was designed by the H.L. Stevens & Company and constructed in 1921 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. It is in the Downtown Altoona Historic District. Official measurements of the building conflict with each other. One measurement is as conservative as 98 feet, while another lists it as 115 feet. These variations may be due to the slight incline that the Penn Alto was built on.
Famous quotes containing the words penn and/or building:
“Nodding, its great head rattling like a gourd,
And locks like seaweed strung on the stinking stone,
The nightmare stumbles past,”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“Culture is a sham if it is only a sort of Gothic front put on an iron building—like Tower Bridge—or a classical front put on a steel frame—like the Daily Telegraph building in Fleet Street. Culture, if it is to be a real thing and a holy thing, must be the product of what we actually do for a living—not something added, like sugar on a pill.”
—Eric Gill (1882–1940)