Centre County Historical Society

06/17/2025

This month we are looking at interesting and beautiful examples of architecture in Centre County.

David Chambers house, Snow Shoe Borough. No date.

As always, if you have additional information, we are happy to add it to the image in our database.

CCHS Places & Spaces Collection 1998.PS.1266

06/16/2025

We hope to earn your membership this year. We ask you to consider becoming Sustaining Membership. This requires an ongoing auto payment of $25 per month totaling $300 per year. The advantage is that Sustaining Membership allows you to forget about renewing from year to year while providing the CCHS with a steady income stream from month to month.
To renew or sign up as a Sustaining Member, simply visit https://centrehistory.org/join-support/become-a-member.

06/13/2025

We will be open for tours this Sunday, June 15 from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. Just a heads up, with the IRONMAN 70.3 Pennsylvania Happy Valley happening in the area, please use caution and be prepared for additional traffic. The Centre Furnace Mansion is not on the main course but there is a lot happening just up the hill from us!

06/13/2025

Next Saturday, June 21, you NEED to check this out, APS is a fantastic supporter of CCHS and a really cool site. Not usually open on weekends so this is your chance to visit!

They updated their mini exhibits in the lobby, the "A Philatelic Memorial of the Holocaust" exhibit is moving and beautifully done (11 million stamps were collected for this project!), plus an exhibit on air mail and others! The library is just beautiful. The APS is also home to two of George Bray Barnard's plaster sculptures, the Hewer and The Rising Woman.
So many great things in this building even if you are not a stamp collector!

Join APS and the Mt. Nittany Philatelic Society next month for SCOPEX and a family-friendly event at the Match Factory in Bellefonte, PA. Visit https://stamps.org/events/apc-events for more information!

06/13/2025

Camp Kanesatake is located just outside of Centre County in neighboring Spruce Creek.
This Camp K 10th Anniversary year book is in our archives. It lists staff and camp attendees during its early years.

One day in October 1921 there was discussion of the lack of interest of the young people of the vicinity in attending summer camps, and deploring the fact that no Sunday school camps existed nearer home. Suddenly, the idea was given to form their own camp! They would ask the three counties to support it, and would be able to send to this camp many times the number of young people who had previously gone to camp out of the area. The three presidents, Mr. R. A. Zentmyer of Tyrone, president of Blair County, Mr. Ives S. Harvey of Bellefonte, president of Centre County, and Professor O. R. Myers of Huntingdon, president of Huntingdon County realized the terrific implications of their decision. But the gravity of the camping situation in the tri-county district, combined with the invincible will which each possessed, prompted the feeling that the new ideas was of great, worthwhile significance, and each departed, determined to arouse as much enthusiasm as possible in his own county.

Read more about their history:https://www.mycampk.com/_files/ugd/460d21_3095e4e2a77141c5a020dfc082ccc911.pdf

06/12/2025

A favorite of CCHS is Root, Leaf, Bud and Berry, A collection of plants from Central PA. Essays and beautiful illustrations are organized as one calendar year, the writings and drawings reveal a sequence of plant growth in central Pennsylvania. Authored and illustrated by Harrison H. Arnold and Rae Dickson Chambers. Published by the Centre County Historical Society.
Order online at bit.ly/3OAUmo7 or visit our Museum Store at the Centre Furnace Mansion.

06/11/2025

Alice Fuchs was a distinguished aviator who became the first female instructor of cadets at the Air Force Academy. The Penn State graduate trained countless new pilots and was a well-known author on aviation subjects.

Her training happened faster than she had anticipated. “I phoned the depot just to inquire about flying lessons, and Sherm said he’d send a car around for me in 15 minutes,” she told an interviewer in 1987. “When I got out to the depot at Boalsburg, he put me in an airplane right away. I never had time to change my mind – not that I wanted to.”

Read more about Alice and her aviation career via the Centre County Encyclopedia of History & Culture at https://centrehistory.org/article/alice-fuchs/.

View image article full size at:https://centrehistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Alice_Fuchs_CDT.pdf

06/10/2025

This month we are looking at interesting and beautiful examples of architecture in Centre County.

Sears mail order home at 206 Hartswick Ave. State College. c. 1933

As always, if you have additional information, we are happy to add it to the image in our database.

06/09/2025

Planting a Legacy: The Liberty Tree Dedication in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.
Read more in the The Happy Valley Adventure Bureau Dispatch at

The America250PA initiative, in proud partnership with the Pennsylvania Freemasons, celebrated a Liberty Tree Dedication Ceremony at the Centre Furnace Mansion on Saturday, May 10, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.

06/06/2025

Don't forget to stop by the Lemont Village Association Strawberry Festival Saturday, June 7 on the village green!
Plus Speeder rides by the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society!

This Saturday! Rain or shine.
Meet us on the Village Green in Lemont between Dale Street and Mt Nittany Road
Live music
Great treats
Speeder rides by the Bellefonte Historic Railroad

06/06/2025

One of many events this weekend!

06/06/2025