Community dances, concerts and religious services once characterized the Hillel building on 224 Locust Lane.

Now, "no trespassing" signs and red tape with the word "danger" hang from the abandoned property's boarded windows and doors.

The Penn State Hillel Foundation would like to resurrect the dilapidated building by rezoning the property to make it more attractive to developers, said Beno Weiss, president of Hillel's governing board. Hillel would then either renovate the building or sell it to a developer.

This is the fourth time since 1984 that Hillel has requested a rezoning. The State College Borough Council denied two previous requests and approved a third in 1990, Planning Director Carl Hess said.

The property is currently zoned for institutional uses such as churches or schools, but Hillel has requested that the council rezone the land for multi-family and office use. The State College Planning Commission recommended yesterday that the council approve the request. A public hearing is scheduled for Feb. 21.

"This would give us a better opportunity to either sell the property, or preferably, to get into a venture with a developer where the developer would build apartments and at the same time build enough space for the Hillel activities to continue," Weiss said.

Those activities would include holding informal meetings, conducting religious services and cooking in a kosher kitchen -- one in accordance with Jewish dietary laws, Hillel Director Tuvia Abramson said.

Hillel has two offices in the Eisenhower Chapel, but Abramson would like more room and the opportunity for spontaneous events instead of having to reserve space ahead of time in the chapel.

Hillel is an educational and cultural center for the 3,500 Jewish students on campus and in the community, Abramson said.

Even if Hillel renovated the building, it would retain its campus office space.

"This is the best location there is," Abramson said. "We don't want to leave such a great, centrally located place, but we would like to have our own home."

Hillel abandoned the property in the mid-1980s because it lacked funds to maintain it. Since then people have treated it less like a home and more like a dumpster. Eight tires and an empty cardboard box of Grolsch's Premium Lager litter the side yard. Black graffitti covers part of a brick wall.

On Tuesday, Weiss said an engineer on Hillel's governing board determined that someone vandalized the building by knocking over two wooden columns on the front porch.

A contractor examined the building yesterday and the borough has given Hillel until Feb. 10 to repair the damage because the porch is in danger of collapsing, Weiss said.

Some State College residents use a dirt path across the front lawn as a shortcut from Highland Avenue to Locust Lane.

"It's a blight on the neighborhood," Weiss said. "Something beautiful or nice could be erected there. Not only would Hillel benefit but the community as well."

Dr. Harold Zipser, 78, remembers when the building benefited the community by housing activities such as Friday night services and lox and bagel breakfasts.

The building was once the home of University professor H. Freeman Stecker and his wife, Ormelle Haines Stecker.

Although Ormelle Stecker was not Jewish, Zipser said she was friends with many members of the Jewish community. When she died in 1949, she stated in her will that Hillel would have the first opportunity to buy the property.

Charles Schlow, a local businessman, and other Jewish community members raised the money to buy the home and later added an auditorium to the building.

"It was a very successful and viable building for a good number of years, but as time progressed, funds became less available," Zipser said. He served on the borough council and the State College Zoning Committee in the 1960s.

John Henry Frizzell, speech professor and University chaplain, who died in 1976, also stated in his will that Hillel would have the first opportunity to buy his property located behind the building. The organization could not raise the funds and an apartment complex now sits in back of the building.

"I would like to see the building the way it was," Zipser said. "Now it's completely devitalized, but once it was full of life."