The History of the Porch Room

Why Do They Call Themselves That?

The actual room after which The Porch Room is named enjoys a fairly bizarre history. Many years ago, a man named Oscar Bernheim served as one of the most devoted employees in the history of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. 'Bernie', as he was known, served in such positions as Secretary to the Board of Trustees, Secretary to the President of the College, Secretary and Treasurer of the College, Bursar, Registrar, bookkeeper, printer, purchasing agent, Manager of Athletics, rental and real estate agent, Alumni Secretary, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, and Manager of the Commons during his tenure at Muhlenberg. When he met with an untimely demise, Bernheim willed his home to the college under the proviso it be used as a residence hall for students of foreign languages until such time as that became impractical.

The Bernheim House, as it became known, stood at 2500 Chew Street, directly across the road from the college's student union and next to the Dorothy and Dexter Baker Center for the Performing Arts. It was a three-story structure of no discernible era, a result of more architectural influences than are worth mentioning here. Two rooms, one of good size and one clearly intended for habitation by pygmies, stood on the first floor across from a spacious living room. The second floor contained four rooms of a more standard size while the third floor contained two rooms of such vast expanse that physical experiments regarding the nature of light were often conducted there. One primary feature of the Bernheim house was an elevated porch which extended beyond one of the second floor bedrooms. This room, ironically enough, became known as the Porch Room.

The house remained a home for foreign language students until the early 1990s, at which point not enough students of German expressed interest in living there to warrant its allocation to them. The college determined that the new residents of the Bernheim house would be students of the performing arts. Theater students being theater students, Bernheim quickly gained a reputation as a haven for the bizarre, funny, weird, psychotic, schizophrenic, creative and generally fun.

Certain alleged incidents during the period of theatrical occupation include:

• The Phil Portno Fire Extravaganza.
• A housekeeping staff engaged in basement Satanism.
• The Phil Portno Basement Extravaganza.
• The inventions of the 'Predator' and 'Great Muppet Caper' Drinking Games.
• The discovery of 'Voltroning'.
• The debacle of the broken second-story window.
• The final proving trials of what 10 cranked Bose speakers actually sound like.
• A detailed analysis of the effect of a ten-foot slingshot on neighboring Benfer Hall.
• Several incidents of paranormal activity based on the continued residence of Oscar himself.
• One knife fight.
• The organization of the inexplicably 12-1 Intramural semi-finalist Muhlenberg Theater Association Softball Team .
• The consumption of a Halloween gourd.
• The theft of 65 gallons of cranberry juice concentrate.

The graduating class of 1997 was the final senior class to reside in the Bernheim House. In the fall of 1997, Bernheim House was put to rubble to clear the way for a new multi-million dollar performing arts center.

Two years later, a number of former Bernheim regulars decided to form a theatrical and cinematic production company with the goal of recording and performing their own original works. A number of names were thrown out for the group but after about three weeks of hardy name-hunting, 'The Porch Room' was settled on.