Location(s)

• 1800 Centre County established.
  
• 1805 Centre County Courthouse constructed in Bellefonte.
  
• 1855 Farmer's High School established; later renamed Penn State University.
  
• 1896 State College Borough established.
  
• 1898 Oct. 26 Orlando W. Houts is born to Harry and Ida Emma Garbrick Houts, the first of six children.
  
• 1898 The Centre Daily Times begins publication.
  
• 1903 Dec. 17 Wright Brothers motorplane flight.
  
• 1906 April 18 San Francisco earthquake.
  
• 1912 April 5 The Titanic sinks.
  
  
• 1918 O. W. Houts graduates from Bellefonte High School. He enrolls at Penn State, where he plays center for the football team, and becomes a member of the Student Training Corps.
  
• 1918 While at Penn State, O. W. first meets Mary Kathryn Barnes (the future Mrs. O. W. Houts).
  
  
• 1920 At age 22, O. W. opens his first store in Lemont, the Houts Lumber Company.
  
• 1920's O. W. builds all but one of the houses on both sides of Foster Avenue between Garner and Hetzel Streets, as well as the Sigma Pi fraternity house.
  
• 1922 O. W. is one of only two members who make up the class of '22 Industrial Engineers, the first college-level Industrial Engineering program in the nation.
  
• 1923 O. W. marries Mary Kathryn Barnes.
  
• 1929 The Corner Room and The Old College Diner open their doors for business.
  
• 1928 Nov. 6 Herbert Hoover elected President.
  
• 1929 O. W. moves the store to its present location at the corner of West College Avenue and Buckhout Street.
  
• 1929 Oct. 29 Stock market crash signals start of The Depression.
  
• 1930's (early) O. W. teams up with physician Grover Glenn to begin construction of Orlando Apartments on South Barnard Street and The Glennland Building at the corner of Easter Beaver Avenue and South Pugh Street.
  
• 1930's O. W. travels to Washington, DC, to discuss restoring The Bellefonte Academy as an aviation school. He meets with financial supporter Amelia Earhart.
  
• 1937 May 6 The Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey.
  
• 1940 United States enacts a military draft.
  
• 1940 Nov. 5 Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third term as U.S. President.
  
• 1941 Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor attacked, United States joins in World War II.
  
• 1942 Oct. 24 Dedication of The Nittany Lion Shrine, a gift from the Class of 1940.
  
  
• 1945, August World War II ends. At this time, O. W. owns and operates over 20 sawmills in the area.
  
• 1945 After WWII, O. W.'s son, Bob, joins the staff, and the store is renamed O. W. Houts and Son.
  
  
  
  
• 1947 O. W. organizes State College Savings and Loan with J. Alvin Hawbaker and John Madore.
  
• 1948 O. W. crowned 33rd Degree Mason of Supreme Council at Boston.
  
• 1948 O. W. has dinner with future President Dwight Eisenhower at New York's Waldorf-Astoria.
  
• 1950's O. W. served as Chairman of the Building Committee at Susquehana University in Selinsgrove, PA, erecting all but two of the buildings on campus. The revolving stage (designed by O. W.) located in the Weber Chapel is named for his wife; the gymnasium is named for O. W., himself.
  
• 1950's (early) O. W. develops Orlando Avenue - Glenn Road neighborhood in West College Heights, then leaves the construction business to focus on and expand the store.
  
• 1950 Joe Paterno joins the coaching staff at Penn State.
  
• 1953 O. W. begins selling food in addition to other product lines. Houts Freezer Foods offers frozen vegetables and a meat department headed by Houts' first butcher, Ogle Kellerman.
  
• 1954 Dec. 4 A fire, triggered by faulty Christmas decorations, destroys Houts' main building, which is stocked with Christmas layaways... a $500,000 disaster.
  
  
• 1954, Dec. 5 O. W. places a "Business as Usual" sign atop the charred ruins. Houts never officially "closes." Christmas orders and layaways are still handled through Houts' lumber department. O. W. searches for jobs in the area for his employees who were displaced by the fire.
  
  
• 1959 Aug. 21 Hawaii becomes the 50th state.
  
• 1963, Aug 28 Martin Luther King, Jr., delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
  
• 1963, Nov. 22 J.F.K. assasinated.
  
• 1964, Feb. 9 The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show.
  
• 1969 First launch of Concorde airplane, capable of reaching 740 mph.
  
• 1969 July 20 Man lands on the moon... "The Eagle has landed."
  
• 1971 March 20 Mary Houts passes away.
  
• 1973 Jan. 27 Cease-fire in the Viet Nam conflict.
  
• 1974 Aug. 8 President Richard Nixon resigns.
  
• 1976 Susquehana University opens a gymnasium named after O. W.
  
• 1981 Aug. 1 MTV debuts.
  
• 1984 Nov. 6 President Reagan re-elected to second term.
  
• 1986 Jan 28 The Challenger space shuttle explodes in flight.
  
• 1988 Oct. 26 O. W. and friends celebrate his 90th birthday.
  
• 1992 March 5 O. W. Houts passes away.
  
• 1999 August O. W. Houts & Son installs its first computerized cash register system.
  
• 2000 July 1 O. W. Houts & Son gets a new address... on the World Wide Web.

Information and text courtesy of O.W. Houts & Son

www.owhouts.com/