The Alpha Fire Company is the volunteer company that serves State College, Penn State, and the surrounding townships. The company was founded in 1899 as the Union Fire Company. A year later, the name was changed to Alpha Fire Company.
Peter Gray Meek was the controversial editor of the Democratic Watchman for more than fifty years. He was widely known for his editorials opposing the Civil War, which led to his arrest several times.
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.
Interstate 80 (the “Keystone Shortway”) is a major transportation artery for Centre County, and is part of one of the nation’s most heavily traveled cross-country highways. Its completion in 1970 marked the beginning of a transformation of US-322 into a network of super-highways that connect with I-80 in Centre County.
Milton Stover Eisenhower came to Penn State in 1950 as its eleventh president after serving as a government administrator and seven years as president of Kansas State University. Eisenhower guided Penn State through a postwar transition of rapidly growing enrollment, academic programs, and research.
McCoy’s Dam on Spring Creek provided hydroelectric power for Centre County during the first half of the twentieth century. The dam, south of Milesburg, was idled for five decades before being razed in 2007 to improve the creek’s water quality.
Schlow Centre Region Library, established in State College in 1957, serves Centre County residents as an agency of the Centre Region Council of Governments. The library was founded when local business owner Charles Schlow donated a property with a two-room storefront on West College Avenue to house it.
In the early years of U.S. transcontinental mail, Bellefonte airfields played an important role as a major refueling stop between New York and Chicago. Mail was flown for the first time from Bellefonte on December 18, 1918, Pilots flew an assortment of planes, including de Havilland DH-4s and Curtiss JN-4H “Jennies.”
Frederick Watts served as founding president of the Board of Trustees of the Farmers’ High School / Agricultural College of Pennsylvania from 1855 to 1874. He played an integral role in establishing the college in Centre County and securing its federal and state land-grant designation.
The Morrill Land-Grant College Act created a new class of colleges centered on scientific, technical, and applied subjects, especially agriculture and engineering. The Pennsylvania Legislature designated the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, today’s Penn State, as the recipient of the act’s endowment income.