BellefontePennsylvania's 'Victorian Secret'Bellefonte is a town of 6,400 nestled in the mountains three miles south of Interstate 80, at a spot about midway across Pennsylvania. It was home to seven governors, and holds one of the most exquisite Victorian downtowns in the United States. The rampant demolition of historic structures so prevalent elsewhere in the 1950s to 1970s largely bypassed Bellefonte. The Bellefonte Museum sits in the center of the town's National Historic District. Bellefonte lies where it does because of an enormous spring from which flows as much as 13.5-million gallons a day -- enough to supply a 17-foot-wide stream and to slake the thirst of the citizens of greater Bellefonte as well. In 1785, a miller named William Lamb decided that a spot just downstream from the spring was perfect for a flour mill to supplY settlers slowly moving in the the East. The community that developed called itself Lamb's Crossing, and the mill, later known as Gamble Mill (rebuilt after a late 1800s fire), today holds a fine restaurant. Lamb sold his mill, the spring, and 800 acres in 1794 to James Dunlop, an ironmaster from Cumberland Valley. The land streched far enough for a whole town, and next year James Harris and James Dunlop, his father-in-law, laid out, block by block, the village that was to become Bellefonte. It was named, so the story goes, by Nancy Harris, Dunlop's daughter and James' wife. It happened during a visit by the French statesman Talleyrand. When Mrs. Harris showed him the massive spring, he exclaimed, "La belle font!" and that, she thought, was a most appropriate name for the town. In the years that followed, Bellefonte, rich with iron-industry money, boomed. Soon it became the most influential town between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. It spawned one eminent political figure after another, boasted a half-dozen opera houses, and at one point supported two daily and five weekly newspapers. Today the town is no longer the largest in the county (State College is, supported by adjacent Penn State), but it retains its old-world charm, its small-town atmosphere, and a cadre of old and new citizens who love it. -- History courtesy of Rob Gannon |
Links to HistoryCentre County Genealogy online resources This site started out in 1996 as part of the PAGenWeb Project and the USGenWeb Project. Both are a result of volunteer effort. Website co-coordinators are Bob Baker and Lisa Kerns. If you should have any questions, feel free to contact either. Penn State history in BellefonteA number of leaders who helped to found Penn State and shape its early development are buried in Bellefonte's Union Cemetery, a 20-minute drive from the University Park campus. Bellefonte, the seat of Centre County, was the region's political, cultural, and economic hub in the nineteenth century. Union Cemetery is located between High and Howard Streets, one block east of the Court House. Other links
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