Boogersburg School Open House
The Boogersburg School is currently closed for tours due to restoration work that is underway. We are pleased to have completed much-needed tree work, restoration, and exterior painting in the fall of 2024. Interior painting and additional landscape will continue in the spring of 2025. We are grateful to The Hamer Foundation and generous donors who have contributed funding. See information about the scope of the project in the PDF below.
An Open House and celebration of the restoration work is scheduled for June 1, 2025. We plan to be open for group tours again by mid-May 2025. For current information or to arrange a tour, please contact Mary Sorensen with any questions at msorensen@centrefurnace.org or call 814-234-4779.
This event is free and open to the public and is located at 1021 Fox Hill Road (corner of Fox Hill Rd. and Pleasant Hill Rd.), State College, Pa. on the road to University Park Airport. Parking is available in the grassy lot beside the school along Pleasant Hill Rd.
On May 1, 1877, Moses Thompson, the ironmaster and owner of Centre Furnace, deeded property along what is now Fox Hill Road for the Boogersburg School. The schoolhouse was built that same year. Thompson wanted to ensure an education for the children of his tenant farmers who lived over two miles from the iron village. For the next 75 years, the Boogersburg School served first through eighth grade youth during some very significant times in our nation’s history.
In 2004, the school was given to the Centre County Historical Society by Society members Bob Struble and Susan Crary. Prior to 2004, the school was closed for many years, then used as an art studio by sculptor Sybil Grucci, until its purchase by the Strubles. The Strubles, winners of a 2003 CCHS Historic Preservation Award, have beautifully restored and furnished the building for use in interpreting school life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It has become a favorite museum resource for the many local elementary school children who have visited the school to experience a typical late 19th century school day. With the help of our volunteer “school marms”, we welcome hundreds of school children every year. CCHS looks forward to continuing to offer rich educational experiences and opportunities for children (and adults) that the Strubles have so successfully initiated and carried out.
For group tour information, please contact the Centre County Historical Society at 814-234-4779 or email info@centrecountyhistory.org
READ MORE about Boogersburg School on the Centre County Encyclopedia of History & Culture!
Read about restoration projects now underway for the Boogersburg School: