As university officials hefted golden-tipped shovels into the crisp November air on Friday, they officially broke ground on a project that has been in the planning stages for 93 years.

About 350 people attended a ceremony for Penn State's arboretum Friday afternoon, which launched the construction of the H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens.

The gardens will occupy nearly 58 of the arboretum's planned 370 acres.

Phase I of the arboretum, projected to open in 2009, will include an overlook pavilion and an event lawn.

The first phase will also include initial plantings in the Rose and Fragrance Garden and in the Demonstration Gardens.

"Phase I is going to be very important when we finish it in April 2009, but it's only a small part of what we have planned for the H.O. Smith Botanic Gardens," arboretum director Kim Steiner said.

The ceremony, held at the proposed arboretum site north of Park Avenue between Bigler and Shortlidge roads, featured remarks from Steiner as well as Penn State President Graham Spanier, Board of Trustees Chairman James Broadhurst and College of Agricultural Sciences Dean Robert Steele.

The arboretum is part of a larger initiative to enhance the natural beauty of Penn State's campus and create a memorable and meaningful landscape, Spanier said at the ceremony.

"[The arboretum] will further Penn State's efforts in stewardship and conservation in the region," Spanier said.

The arboretum has been in major planning stages since 1994, but an arboretum proposal was first submitted to the Board of Trustees and then-president Edwin Earle Sparks in 1914, Spanier said.

"Generally speaking, we try to move forward with projects a little more expeditiously than this suggests," Broadhurst joked.

The first phase of construction on the arboretum was made possible because of the $10 million donation by alumnus and State College resident Charles H. "Skip" Smith. Charles Smith made the donation in honor of his father Harry O. "H.O." Smith, also a Penn State alumnus.

Steiner, a professor of forest biology, received his committee assignment 32 years ago and has been with the project ever since.

When completed, the arboretum may be used in classes such as horticulture, landscape architecture and art classes, he said.

"It'll be a great place for students to visit for fun and pleasure," he said. "It's hard to predict, but I think there will be a lot of students here eventually."

State College Mayor Bill Welch, who also attended the ceremony, said the arboretum will benefit the Centre Region as well as the university.

"I think it will be one more destination, one more draw to bring people to the community," Welch said.

Student members of the Penn State Horticulture Club were also on hand at the ceremony to distribute souvenir packets of seeds to guests.

"It goes without saying that they're perennials, they're not annuals," he said, "because this is the beginning."