The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international organization that promotes abstinence from alcohol and also campaigns for other social causes. The organization was active in Centre County for decades with chapters across the county.
The WCTU sprang from the Women’s Temperance crusade of 1873-1874 when women marched around saloons, praying, singing, and trying to persuade patrons to forsake alcohol. During a meeting in Cleveland on November 18, 1874, the WCTU was founded by more than one hundred women from seventeen states.
Members signed a pledge to “abstain from all distilled, fermented and malt liquors, including beer, wine and hard cider, and to employ all proper means to discourage the use and traffic in the same.” (The word “woman” in the name of the organization is singular, not plural, because each member pledged to make her own commitment to abstain.)
The WCTU grew rapidly, and by the end of the nineteenth century it had become the largest women’s organization in the world. It expanded its mission to support other social causes, including women’s suffrage, prison reform, and labor law.
The first WCTU chapter in Centre County was organized in Bellefonte in 1881. Mary Harris was elected president, an office she would hold until 1916. In 1883, Bellefonte hosted the state convention of the Pennsylvania Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
In 1884, the Centre County Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was chartered. During the next thirty years, new chapters known as “unions” were organized in communities across the county, including Boalsburg, Centre Hall, Howard, Hublesburg, Milesburg, Millheim, Philipsburg, Pleasant Gap, Port Matilda, State College, Unionville, and Zion. By 1917, the WCTU had twenty-four unions and more than 600 members in Centre County. Each year, a two-day convention of the county’s unions was held in various locations.
In 1899, the WCTU received property on High Street in the will of Marion Wallace Petrikin of Bellefonte, a school teacher who supported the WCTU’s work but never joined as a member. The organization began raising money to build a hall, and construction began in 1901.
Robert Cole, already well-known for his work on other local buildings, designed the hall in the Richardson Romanesque style with the name “WCTU Petrikin Hall” at the top. The next year, Petrikin Hall was dedicated in a ceremony during the Pennsylvania Woman’s Christian Temperance Union’s state convention in Bellefonte.
The first floor of Petrikin Hall contained two offices, a library, and an auditorium. The second and third floors had apartments that were rented to provide income for the union. The auditorium was used by the Bellefonte union for meeting and events, and it also became a popular venue for other local events, including concerts, lectures, and graduations.
One of the most active members of the WCTU was Rebecca Rhoads, who served as the county president from 1915 to 1926. When the 18th Amendment prohibited the sale of alcohol in 1920, she was a leader in trying to keep the county “dry.” After stepping down as president, she continued leading the WCTU’s effort to elect dry candidates.
The WCTU’s influence declined after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. However, local unions remained scattered across the county. For many years, the WCTU sponsored a booth at the annual Grange Fair to spread its message about the dangers of alcohol and drugs, as well as commentary on other social issues.
In 1967, the Bellefonte union sold Petrikin Hall. The building has been sold several more times since then but remains on High Street. By the end of the 20th century, the number of local WCTU members had dropped considerably.
Ford Risley
Sources:
Bellefonte Historic District, National Register of Historic Places, 1977.
Democratic Watchman, December 1, 1899, September 14, 1917, September 28, 1923.
Schumacher, Jerilyn. “Union has fighting spirit,” Centre Daily Times, June 5, 1999
Skeels, Julia. “Bellefonte’s Petrikin Hall and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union: Local Woman’s History in a National Context.” B.A. Thesis, Pennsylvania State University, 1991.
First Published: November 17, 2025