Big Spring
Big Spring is a natural groundwater outlet found in Talleyrand Park in downtown Bellefonte, noteworthy for both its unique geology and its historical significance.The powerful spring forms a pool at the edge of the park.
Era: Revolution to Establishment of the County (1776-1800)
Roopsburg Brewery
Bellefonte attorney and gunsmith Jacob Roop opened Spring Creek Brewery in 1826 on property he purchased the previous year along Spring Creek. It became Centre County’s first successful brewery, operating for 76 years until 1902.
Andrew Gregg
Andrew Gregg was an early landowner in Penns Valley who became an important politician, representing the middle portion of the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and Pennsylvania as a United States senator.
Municipalities
Centre County is comprised of twenty-five townships and ten boroughs that provide local government for residents. The number of boroughs and townships has grown and changed since the county’s founding in 1801.
Boalsburg
Boalsburg, originally known as Springfield, is a historic village in Harris Township, near the base of Tussey Mountain. After the Revolutionary War, settlers moved to the valley and among them was David Boal, who built a stone cabin in 1803, which still stands as part today’s Boal Mansion.
Evangelical Churches
Evangelical churches share common roots in the Protestant Reformation and later “awakenings” that established new denominations stressing personal salvation, holiness, emotional worship, and simplicity. Centre County welcomed new churches that blended both German and Scots Irish evangelical traditions.
Millheim
Millheim is a historic Centre County community that for more than 150 years was the industrial center of Penns Valley. Its history has been shaped by Elk Creek, which provided power to the mills that gave the borough its name.
Limestone
Limestone has played an essential role in Centre County’s economic history. Widely used for both industrial and agricultural purposes, limestone has been mined in the county for more than 200 years.
Davey Lewis
Davey Lewis, a native of Centre County, was a scourge of central and southern Pennsylvania in the early 19th century, notorious for highway robbery, counterfeiting, and prison escapes.
John Patton
John Patton was a Revolutionary War veteran and prosperous Philadelphia merchant and civic leader, who moved to Centre County in 1789 to build the region’s first charcoal-fired iron furnace, Centre Furnace. The operation’s success sparked the founding of additional furnaces and forges in what would become Centre County.