While State College bar hoppers may be mourning the Brickhouse's final call at 123 1/2 Humes Alley early Sunday morning, one Penn State student says the building's demolition is another case of poor downtown planning -- and she's doing something about it.

After two weeks of research into the building's history, Gina Lewis (senior-architecture) said she will make a last attempt to definitively determine the building's age and past with a deed search in the Bellefonte Courthouse today. Even if it is too late to save the building, the owners should allow some time for a record of it to be made, Lewis said.

"We just want to let people know what happened, to stop them from doing it again in State College . . . sort of like, 'If this building has to die but others will live,' that sort of thing," said Lewis, who specializes in historic preservation.

"Just in the matter of three years, they've changed the face of State College. I think a lot of alumni like to come back and see the way things were. Not right now, but in the next 10 years, much of what is downtown won't be here anymore. It changes the fade of the college town," she said.

Since the first apartment buildings sprouted downtown in the 1970s, residents and developers have fought the ongoing debate of expansion above atmosphere and development over history. And since 1987, residents have protested the demolition of the old Boots Dairyette building for the construction of the Graduate, 309 E. Beaver Ave.; the relocation of Graham's to Ben and Jerry's, 124 S. Allen St.; and attempts to build an apartment building where the Jewish Community Center, 620 E. Hamilton Ave, stands.

The Centre County Historical Society, 1001 E. College Ave., wrote a letter to the borough, asking for help to save the Brickhouse, but the governmental process required to save it will come too late, said Carl R. Hess, the borough's planning director.

"We need a stronger policy to attempt to save what we have left of the original buildings," he added.

Brickhouse owner Carl Easterling said last week he will no longer comment on the bar's fate.

"I've been pretty outspoken about it so far. If somebody is trying to save it, I'll shut up so I don't cause any trouble for them," Easterling said.

Easterling has bought the block of land surrounding the Brewery, 232 E. Beaver Ave., and will move the Brickhouse to that location sometime in early April.

After the bar's demolition, the spot will become a parking lot for Woodring's Floral Gardens, 145 S. Allen St., said Mike Albright, the store's manager.

An architect is determining the number of spaces which would fit in the lot, Albright said.

"Professionals have looked at it, and they consider the building to have been built around 1911 to 1925. There had been some rumors that it had been as early as 1850, but it's just a case that someone didn't have the facts," he said.

From looking at Sanborn maps -- detailed maps used for fire insurance purposes -- the building was a bake house in 1922, and present as early as 1911, but no maps are available before then, Lewis said. She said she found records of a frame structure on the same spot in 1906.

More specific and earlier information could be found in the deeds, she said.

But the building still has historical value whatever its exact construction date, Lewis said.

"They're aware of what they're doing, but they don't look for another solution," she said. "I think they didn't take the time to think, 'What can we do with these old homes?' Maybe if they fixed them up, students could live in them."

"I see their point of things. 'Why save one or two old buildings where you can build an apartment where 200 or 300 students can live or a parking lot?' "

The Baroutsis family began looking two or three years ago for an alternative to the building, Albright said.

"The owner has determined, from his standpoint, that it is not feasible to repair the building to the condition it should be in," he said.

In early 1989, the Planning Commission's Neighborhood Action report called for the establishment of a historic commission in the borough to oversee the preservation and renovation of such buildings, Hess said.

The commission will consider the report at its March 29 meeting and then will send it on to borough council, which will probably look at the report during work sessions in April, Hess said. A commission would probably be established early this summer, he added.

But for now, Lewis said she is waiting to see what she finds in the deeds, whether it's to save the building or investigate it before it is razed.

"If you could dig a little bit and look at the nails, or the wood and the way it was cut, you can find out a lot about the building," Lewis said. "And if you can find a name, at least, a Willard, an Atherton, maybe they won't be so inclined to do anything just yet. Just as long as they know what their getting into before they tear it down."