BOALSBURG — During April, Centre County Pomona Grange No. 13 Community Service Committee began looking for a 2017 project. A suggestion was made to contact Bob Cameron, caretaker of the Boal Mansion and Museum. He had recently made a presentation at an event that inspired a committee member to discuss the accomplishments at the mansion, and what’s in store for the future of the site.
On the morning of April 29, Grange members arrived on the property with shovels, gloves and pruning shears — and a willingness to do whatever was asked of them. According to Patty Bird, community service chairman of the Grange, 13 adult members and one child participated.
“Members were given options of what area they would like to work in. Some of the men loaded and moved pallets, along with brush that had already been cleared, and it was burned in a designated area,” said Bird. “Others worked on cleaning debris, along with old leaves, and weeded the existing flower beds.”
She said several members also worked to restore a memorial garden.
The day, however, was not just about doing a good deed. Some knowledge also was passed on.
“One thing we did learn was that Christopher Columbus (who has a chapel in Boalsburg) was instrumental in bringing farming techniques to Pennsylvania and the new world,” said Bird. “Mr. Cameron gave all of us a small insight into farm life at the mansion and how its board of directors and he are working to take it back to its original beauty.”
Bird said after the chores were completed, the workers were offered a tour of the Christopher Columbus Chapel.
The Boal Mansion has been the home of eight generations of the Boal family for more than 200 years, and the original furnishings are still inside. A fourth-generation member, Theodore Davis Boal, who was known as Terry, went to Europe in the 1890s and married Mathilde, who was a descendant of Christopher Columbus. She inherited the Columbus Chapel and brought it to Boalsburg in 1909. It contains the admiral’s desk owned by Columbus, 15th- through 18th-century paintings and sculptures, and two pieces of the True Cross of Jesus.
For more information about Columbus Chapel and Boal Mansion Museum, call (814) 466-6210 or visit www.boalmuseum.com.
