The Bellefonte building that for more than 80 years housed Centre Crest nursing home now represents a new chapter for Centre County government services.
Elected officials, community leaders and county staff gathered Thursday evening to celebrate the opening of the new Community Services Building, the result of a $30 million renovation to the 502 E. Howard St. facility that brings all of the county’s human service agencies and elections office operations under one roof.
“The opening of the Community Services Building represents a new era for Centre County Government, one in which the thoughtful design of this campus matches the commitment we have long held to providing the best possible care and service to Centre County residents,” Commissioner Amber Concepcion said.
Across three floors and 118,000 square feet of space, the building is now home to Children and Youth Services; Mental Health, Intellectual Disability, Early Intervention and Drug & Alcohol; Aging; Veterans’ Affairs; Adult Services; and Elections and Voter Registration. The Bellefonte Senior Center will also be located there, though has yet to move in.
Planning for an adaptive reuse of the building, which was constructed in 1939, began in 2021 after Centre Crest moved to the new Centre Care facility in College Township, and construction began a year ago. The county maintained ownership of the building after transferring Centre Crest operations to a non-profit community board in 2013.
Many who were in attendance on Thursday, and many more who will work or visit there, carry memories of its time as a nursing home. Though it has been remodeled from top to bottom, it has retained elements of its past while expanding on its legacy of care.
“I look around and I realize the mission has expanded,” said Commissioner Steve Dershem, whose mother lived at Centre Crest before her passing in 2009. “We’re not just providing a home and a residence for folks. We’re providing services from cradle literally to the end of days.
“I’m really moved by what I saw today when I felt the breath and the life back in this building. When it was empty and we were looking around and you see all these pictures of when it was taken apart, that wasn’t this building. This building was always full of people, full of employees, full of residents, full of life and full of caring. And now it’s back. And I think you’re going to really, really appreciate what this building represents to the folks here in Centre County.”
Julia Sprinkle, Centre County’s human services administrator who helped to oversee the renovation, pointed out the exposed brick throughout the building that serves as a reminder of its history, calling it “the caring cornerstone upon which the Community Services Building was built.”
“When we set out to renovate this building, we wanted to keep the community in mind not only in the design and its features, but also in how we preserve the history of this space,” Sprinkle said.
“We are excited and honored to keep that tradition of care. This building and the work done within it are but a manifestation of the ongoing, caring connection between the county and the community.”
By bringing together the multiple agencies in one location, the county aimed to offer more convenient and coordinated access to services for residents and provide spaces that met the needs of staff and their work.
Some departments, like Adult Services and Mental Health, Intellectual Disability, Early Intervention and Drug & Alcohol, had been operating from leased offices in Summit Park near State College, miles away from other departments and in less welcoming spaces for their clients.
Others, meanwhile, worked in cramped offices at the county’s Willowbank Building, for which the county will perform a space study and reconfiguration now that room has been freed up, using money from the bond issuance that supported the CSB project.
The renovated building was designed using trauma-informed practices, with the goal of creating calming, welcoming and empowering spaces for both residents who are going through a difficult time and for staff who bear the stress of the work in providing help.
“When you walk through the building and see the updated features and amenities that reflect trauma-informed practice, you’ll find spaces that consider the needs of community members and employees, spaces that promote well-being, resilience and growth,” Sprinkle said.
That can be seen throughout the building, from water features on the first and lower floors to large windows with appealing views to cozy waiting rooms to preserved outdoor courtyards.
“From more welcoming waiting areas, and we have a number of them, conference rooms with better technology, safer spaces for both clients and staff, every detail was designed with purpose to ensure that everyone who walks through the doors feels seen, supported and empowered,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said.
One of the best examples is in the Children and Youth Services wing. A playroom with large windows overlooks the building’s Howard Street entrance, while a separate visitation suite serves several purposes.
Designed as a small apartment, the suite has a living room with a children’s play area, a small kitchen with appliances, a bedroom with a crib and changing table, washer/dryer unit and a full bathroom. It can be used as an educational space for families working with the agency, or to provide a place for a child to stay in circumstances when CYS is waiting to place them in foster care or with family.
“That’s really what we wanted for those spaces, to be both able to be functional if the need arise, or also educational,” Sprinkle said.
Co-locating the various agencies in one building is intended to provide for collaboration and opportunities for improvement among services, with intentionally planned spaces in close proximity to each other.
“The building was designed to make it easier for all of our departments to collaborate,” Sprinkle said. “It is not uncommon for a person or family to receive multiple services from the county. Now that many of our human service departments are in the same building, the public can easily and conveniently access them.”
The Elections and Voter Registration Office, meanwhile, now has one larger space for all of its equipment and operations on the building’s lower level.
“This building provides a new home for Elections that was thoughtfully designed for the needs of that department to provide accessible voter services, equipment storage and maintenance, security, spaces for training and greatly improved spaces for processing election returns,” Concepcion said. “This will allow us to operate more efficiently with a continual commitment to the most precise and thorough conduct of elections in Centre County, as well as a convenient location for voters to access this office.”
State Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, praised the renovated facility as “remarkably well done and much needed.” He lauded the agencies it houses for the “key role” they play in delivering services and for providing a “vital link” between federal and state programs and residents.
“Their efforts in a wide variety of areas… [are] truly invaluable to the health and well-being of our community,” Takac said. “And now, many of these essential teams are housed under one roof in this beautiful, new and more user-friendly building.”
All together, the building represents the culmination of years of work by current and past elected officials and staff members.
Among them was former Commissioner Michael Pipe, whom both Higgins and Dershem credited for championing the idea before stepping down in 2023 to take a position in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration. Though unable to attend on Thursday because of a family illness, Pipe said in a statement read by Higgins that the “investment made to repair, rejuvenate and reopen Centre Crest as the Community Services Building ensures that the residents of Centre County will continue its original legacy.”
Some work remains to be done. In addition to moving the Bellefonte Senior Center in, spaces for tenants that Centre County Administrator John Franek said “would be a complement to the human service agencies that are here” still need to be finished. Work to create an additional 26 parking spaces and related retaining walls also remains to be completed.
But those are relatively small matters in the scope of the project, and Dershem said he “can’t say enough how pleased” he is with what has been accomplished.
“I was probably one of the greatest naysayers when they said ‘Well we need to we need to make this a little nicer, or this a little shinier or this a little neater,” Dershem said. “I was like, ‘Well you know, that’s kind of expensive.’ But when I see it all in totality and I see what it means, I can only tell you that I am thrilled, absolutely thrilled, with the end product and I couldn’t be any more pleased with what the Centre County Government family has created here and will continue to harbor over the next many generations.”
Higgins said it has created a fitting home for “the quiet engine of a thriving community.”
“So today, we didn’t just cut a ribbon. We opened a new chapter, one grounded in fairness, service and hope,” Higgins said. “May this building continue to be a place where health is given freely, dignity is preserved and lives are changed for the better.”
