Local Historia

During the Roaring ’20s, America experienced a cultural revolution that would echo throughout history, breaking from the traditional Victorian values of the previous century and ushering in an era of change. Women’s roles in society began to change behind the efforts of suffragettes, the automobile connected communities like never before, and America launched its “noble…

What do a murder at a Pittsburgh gas station during the Great Depression, a shootout near the Rattlesnake Mountain airmail beacon, and Bellefonte Academy students have in common? The true crime of George Clark Skidmore. On September 20, 1930, twenty-year-old George Skidmore was involved in a robbery of a service station in the Mount Washington…

Cruising down Interstate 99, driving along U.S. Route 322, or even meandering through forgotten villages along the backroads of Pennsylvania, it’s easy to lose sight of how difficult travel used to be. Making the trip to State College from many metropolitan areas has shrunk from a full day’s trip to a few hours on expressways…

I’ve been researching the jails in Bellefonte for several years, hoping to find which jails were earliest and where they were located. I got serious about this topic when a local told me her uncle once owned the property at 119 East High Street and that she remembered an old prison cell inside the basement.…

On a steamy Thursday evening in early June 1900, the Tyrone Borough Council met to discuss several issues facing the railroad boom town. This meeting, however, was different. A highly publicized issue was on the agenda and the civic-minded citizens of Tyrone came in droves to hear the results. Little did they know, the issue…

Many visitors and locals are fascinated by the big trout in Bellefonte’s Talleyrand Park. The fish can be found lurking beneath the cool waters of Spring Creek, in particular under the suspension bridge or between the falls (dam) and Veterans Bridge on High Street. Through the efforts of the Talleyrand Park Committee (Bellefonte Historical and…

Much has been written of the legendary 148th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War and their prolific commander, James A. Beaver. From their regimental history, to numerous battlefield monuments at famous sites, to our very own immortalization on the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in Bellefonte, this unit and their accomplishments are well-documented. Their involvement…

I recently received an interesting phone call from a world-renowned artist, Michael Pilato, who was working on a mural for Bellefonte. His art includes inspring stories from all over the world. You’ve likely parked or walked by one of his murals on Pennsylvania streetscapes in Williamsport, Emporium, or Pittston or on Hiester Street in his…

In the chaotic times of the 1760s, many settlers attempted to forge a homestead from the isolated frontier in the heart of the Pennsylvania wilderness. Decades before the iron boom of the nineteenth century, future Revolutionary War figure James Potter blazed a trail through Native American lands, proclaiming he’d “discovered an empire.” The years that…

Potter Township was founded 250 years ago. It is celebrated as Centre County’s oldest surviving township which still bears the same name. Back in 1774, it was part of Northumberland County and was much larger than it is today, even including Aaronsburg (now part of Haines Township). As the map of Pennsylvania unfolded westward, Centre…