History
In 1865, the Creamery was established in the "College Barns" located behind present-day Old Main. The College Barns housed the Creamery, a blacksmith shop, and a hayloft.
Built in 1889 with part of a $7,000 state appropriation, the first stand alone Creamery was a one-story building containing a cold-storage room, cream-ripening room, workroom, and office space. It was a result of Henry Armsby's efforts to upgrade the college's instruction and research in dairying, and was the focal point for numerous bulletins that had immediate value to dairy farmers. Dairy short courses offered there beginning in 1889 were so popular that the University herds could not keep up with the demand for milk, and local farmers would line up in the mornings to make deliveries. The now-famous Ice Cream Short Course offered each year began with ice cream-making instruction in these courses.
In 1904 the Creamery moved to the Patterson Building. Processing operations greatly increased and research and development of pasteurized milk was established. The Dairy Manufacturing major was created and retail delivery of pasteurized milk and cream began.
In 1932 the Creamery moved once more to a wing of Borland Laboratory. By then it was buying milk and cream from 300 area farmers and was selling milk, cheese, and ice cream in the State College and Altoona markets. The raw-milk receiving room and the salesroom were added to the original structure in 1960 and 1961.
By the 1980s the Creamery had gone through about 3 million pounds of milk a year from two herds--the University's and one other local dairy. In 2004 it produced the following for the University dining halls alone: 160,000 gallons of lowfat 2 percent milk, 60,000 gallons of lowfat chocolate milk, 80,000 gallons of skim milk, and 10,000 gallons of whole milk. Still more milk in varying amounts was sold in the Creamery salesroom. The Creamery also produced 25,000 pounds of sour cream, 28,000 pounds of ricotta cheese, 150,000 pounds of cream cheese, 62,000 pounds of cheddar cheese, 60,000 pounds of yogurt, and 225,000 gallons of its famous ice cream and sherbet. These dairy products are sold in the salesroom and used in the dining halls.
In August of 2006, the Creamery moved into the first floor of the beautiful new Food Science Building. The Berkey Creamery store, named after Earl and Jeanne Berkey, now occupies 3700 square feet of this space. The store itself, is two and one half times the size of the old creamery store in Borland. The production and storage areas have also greatly increased in size, allowing for greater capacity of products at any given time.
