‘A big team effort’: Tamara Schuster discusses the revitalization of Bellefonte—past, present, and future

Edited by Vilma Shu

Board president of the Bellefonte Chamber of Commerce since 2018 and owner of Our Fair Lady, A Victorian Bed and Breakfast, Tamara Schuster is passionate about Bellefonte and preserving the town’s historic charm. Her love for Bellefonte has helped drum up community support to revitalize the town and bring new businesses into the area. 

Schuster earned her bachelor’s degrees in music education and music therapy from Duquesne University. Later, she received her master’s degree in music therapy and education from Radford University. Originally residing in Virginia, the former teacher and her husband, Bob, purchased a historic Victorian home in Bellefonte in 2007 and began extensive renovations to restore it. Named after the musical My Fair Lady, where the couple met in high school as cast and crew members, Our Fair Lady opened as a bed and breakfast in 2008. 

Town&Gown founder Mimi Barash Coppersmith sat down with Schuster on Zoom to discuss how the Bellefonte Chamber of Commerce is working with various other organizations on the revitalization of Bellefonte and what people can expect to see in the near future. 

Mimi: I was interested in interviewing you because it seems to me that you are part of the stimulus for what’s happening in Bellefonte. 

Tamara: Well, there are a lot of fun things going on in Bellefonte. And the Bellefonte Chamber is working closely with Downtown Bellefonte, Inc., which I would highly recommend getting in contact with them and interviewing them as well. And your contact person would be Jennilyn Schuster. She has done amazing things here with Bellefonte in the last year.

Mimi: My follow-up question was going to be, how did it begin? In my mind, the revival of Bellefonte started with the development of the Bellefonte Art Museum (BAM). 

Tamara: Yes.

Mimi: It’s been amazing to watch what can happen when people are committed to making something happen.

Tamara: Yes. Working together. A few years ago, on Sundays, BAM invited the public to visit, and they had food and wine for people. It was wonderful and extremely well attended. It was just a way of getting people connected with what was going on, that we have this rich art community. And so, we had that, and things started rolling along. And then the Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB) started really trying to keep the preservation going on these buildings. We started having facade grants. And then, we worked closely with Historic Bellefonte, Inc. (HBI). We have all these acronyms here in Bellefonte that are all under subcommittees.

Mimi: Are you the glue that holds all this together?

Tamara: Me, no. It takes lots of people. It’s a big team effort, and it’s people who love Bellefonte, and we want to see Bellefonte continue to grow. And then we ended up getting our Main Street Program to get it started and pushing to have a destination Bellefonte and worked on that for several years. And it’s just been this very steady pace of things increasing and more people coming in and getting excited. And it’s really taking off now.

Mimi: So, who are the other key players? Who are the people you draw together to plan the next steps?

Tamara: Downtown Bellefonte, Inc., I give them the highest praise. They really have done an amazing job. Jennilyn is the Downtown Main Street manager and has done a phenomenal job of bringing different groups and committees and getting more grants into Bellefonte.

Mimi: There’s been an effort to preserve the old look and not tear down these historic buildings or build them 12 stories. What brought different pieces of Bellefonte together to create a climate in which your B&B can prosper in a residence with the old architecture?

Tamara: I have a huge passion for preserving. I think preservation is so important. It’s part of our history at Our Fair Lady, our bed and breakfast. It was built in 1883, and I wanted to keep her the way she was. Once people see the ball starting, it starts slow, but then you have this magnificent town. I love living in Bellefonte. There’s so much history here, and we want to preserve it. We have historical signs that we’ve been putting up—but also to truly keep those buildings alive. 

Mimi: To preserve history.

Tamara: Yes. I don’t know why Bellefonte has so many fires, which is scary, but when you can preserve the building, or at least be able to preserve the facade, it makes such a difference.

Mimi: What is the economic impact of what’s beginning to happen in terms of the people who own the real estate and the probability of people wanting to live in that kind of environment?

Tamara: Great question. So, having people who already have these homes and a strong historic architectural review committee in place, they realize that if you’re going to purchase one of these older homes or older buildings, you need to help preserve it. And you go through the committees to make sure that it is accepted and is maintained, and you go back to historically how those buildings should be. So, starting with that, and then that goes to when businesses come in and look at the area, and they see, wow, people are really taking pride in these homes and these other buildings, and then more businesses come in.

Mimi: In terms of the growth of Bellefonte, can you give us an idea of its growth record in the last decade? What is the economic impact of what’s beginning to happen?

Tamara: Well, it’s really starting to grow because we’ve had new businesses come in within the last decade, such as Big Spring Spirits. They were the first LEED-certified building housed in the Match Factory. The first big one was when the National Philatelic Society purchased the Match Factory and started huge renovations.

So, having that building, the distillery came in, and then they took a section and have done a phenomenal job. Then we had Good Intents Cidery come in, a small cidery, and then Axemann Brewery. They did a total revitalization with the Titan industrial plant on Axemann Road. So, they went in, and now there’s Titan Market. It’s like this little snowball effect. You have Axemann Brewery, then Titan Market, and now there’s Titan Hollow, and they have a little cidery in there and food, and it’s wonderful.

Mimi: Has this been a boost in the arm of the Bellefonte Chamber of Commerce?

Tamara: Yes, it has. Because once you end up getting more members, then we can succeed because almost all our funding comes from membership because we’re a 501(c)6. We aren’t eligible for some of the 501(c)3s, which hurts. I don’t know why it was written up that way many years ago.

Mimi: You don’t qualify for Centre Gives?

Tamara: No, I don’t think we do for Centre Gives. So, you know, donations, and we ended up having our big croquet tournament. That’s our big fundraiser, but then going back to a boost in the arm, then the armory was just purchased, and they’re going to be putting in a brewery over there too, which is on the east side of Bellefonte. We’re expanding; not everything’s concentrated right downtown. 

Mimi: Some people have come back to the area because they see the possibility for the future of Bellefonte. So, what’s your secret weapon?

Tamara: Being sincere about loving Bellefonte and wanting every business to succeed. Not seeing it as you’re in competition with other downtown businesses—instead, for us to thrive together and be sincere about that. When people realize that you have that enthusiasm, it just continues through for people to love Bellefonte.

Mimi: How did you end up running a bed and breakfast in Bellefonte?

Tamara: I went to Duquesne. I saw Bellefonte when we would come up on football weekends. We moved here from Virginia, and, of course, there was the Gamble Mill—well, now it is finally back. Jonathan Virgilio is going to do a wonderful job on that. But it was only at nighttime, and then we were here during the day when we were looking to find a bed and breakfast, a home to turn into one, and we looked at 23 different properties, and we found this one. I walked in, and I said, this is it. I just felt it immediately. And my husband said there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. And I said, I know, but we can do this. I feel almost like I’m a curator of taking care of my home because I want to preserve it for further generations.

Mimi: So, you have this B&B. Tell me what it’s like to be in that kind of business where you must meet some of the most interesting characters. Can you tell our readers some of the stories that make you smile, laugh, and be thrilled that you’re doing this work?

Tamara: We’ve had several weddings here. We’ve had people that started dating and met each other here, and then their love bloomed. And then they ended up getting married here and continued to come back every year for their anniversary. We have our very first guest from 15 years ago, and they continue to come a couple of times a year. And others that are here for all the football games. We have a couple that has become good friends with us and he is Italian, and they started coming since about a year after we opened, and now they come every year; we end up making prosciutto together. Then, there are guests who stayed with us, and their children are graduating. 

Mimi: And did you have any background in running a business like this?

Tamara: No, not at all. I taught in the public school system, and I also taught at Radford University, but we love to travel. And so, we always liked to go to bed and breakfasts. And I thought that this is something I would love to do, totally different than my teaching background. I have degrees in music education, in music therapy.

Mimi: When did you move to Bellefonte?

Tamara: We came here 15 years ago.

Mimi: Where did you live before you came to Bellefonte?

Tamara: In southwestern Virginia, right on the border to North Carolina in Carroll County. I enjoyed living there; it was a very rural area right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. I thought that when we moved here, it would be a little difficult for me to get used to living in a town. And every window that I looked at, I could see a neighbor or a building because where we lived in Virginia, you couldn’t see our neighbors from the house. It was a neighborhood, but the lots were large, and there was a field behind us and woods on either side. I was used to seeing deer and wildlife every day. Within a week, I adjusted. I loved it. You can walk to everything, and you get to know your neighbors in a different kind of way. I love sitting on my front porch when the kids are walking to school or back from school, and you wave to them, and they say hi back. 

Mimi: What do your children do?

Tamara: During COVID, two of our children ended up moving here to Bellefonte. They fell in love with Bellefonte. So, my daughter is an interior design architect. She is now the Downtown Bellefonte Main Street manager. My son has his own landscaping business here, Schuster’s Landscaping, and then our other daughter. She still lives in North Carolina, and she is a teacher.

Mimi: Like her mother. Tell me how you got the name of your bed and breakfast.

Tamara: Well, my husband and I met during the musical My Fair Lady in high school. He designed and built the scenery, and I was Eliza Dolittle. We started dating after the play and continued through for six years. He went to Penn State, and I started at Westchester and then transferred to Duquesne, and we still continued dating. And then when we found this house, they referred to these Victorian ladies as the painted ladies, and we decided, oh, we should name it Our Fair Lady from My Fair Lady and the painted ladies and combine it together. And then our rooms are named after the different characters of the musical.

Mimi: Good job. So, what’s the next surprise Bellefonte will come up with?

Tamara: Our next surprise will be the bandshell. Hopefully, that will end up coming through, and that’s going to be really nice. 

Mimi: That will be in the park.

Tamara: Yes. Over between where the pump house is and Big Spring Spirits. So that will be really exciting if enough funding comes through on that.

Mimi: And the project that’s planned for the hotel conference center on the waterfront—when’s that going to get underway?

Tamara: We’ll see.

Mimi: Is it still alive?

Tamara: Oh, they’re still planning on doing it. It’s just had multiple times of stopping and starting, and COVID was a big factor. So, they’re hoping that they’ll get started here shortly.

Mimi: You’re hitting some home runs during a very difficult time. Imagine what you can do. You’ll have grand slams once things are back to normal, whenever that is.

Tamara: Yes. A new normal.

Mimi: Have you had many projects where you’ve been able to get state or federal funding?

Tamara: Well, the commissioners have worked hard to make sure that businesses could stay afloat, I’ll put it that way, during COVID. We were very fortunate that way. So, they ended up getting funding from them.

Mimi: Is having cooperative elected officials an important part of your success?

Tamara: Yes. The commissioners have done a very good job. And also, Kerry Benninghoff’s office has worked hard, and Jake Corman’s office has worked hard getting funds for Bellefonte. So, it’s like I said before, I can’t stress enough. It’s not just one person or one group. It’s a variety of people and groups willing to listen and work collaboratively together.

Mimi: As the president of the chamber board, I must assume that you have been a stimulus that helped them realize we can improve things if we work together. It’s important to know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. And it sounds like you’ve got the engine on, and you’re ready to roll. I wish you good luck.Tamara: Thank you. Well, it was a pleasure. T&G