Bellefonte city founders&nbsp;James Dunlop and James Harris worked to create an elite academy of learning in their city in the early 1800s. In 1805, the&nbsp;Pennsylvania Legislature approved the charter for what would become the Bellefonte Academy.&nbsp; Reverend&nbsp;James R Hugh served as&nbsp;headmaster of the Academy from 1868 to 1900. He was succeeded by his&nbsp;son James Hugh, who operated the school&nbsp;until it had to temporarily close during the leanest years of the Great Depression. Not only was the Academy known for its excellence in education but also for its excellence in sports. In 1908 the Academy beat Penn State in football which lead the team to go to the playoffs and eventually win the National Prep School Championship.&nbsp; The Academy educated numerous&nbsp;governors and politicians, including&nbsp;Andrew Curtin and Rev John Palmer. The Academy caught on fire in 1904, but the school trustees were able to not only repair the damage, but add a third floor to the building along with an improvement to the front of the building. After the Great Depression, the&nbsp;building was converted into an apartment building. After the building was destroyed by fire in 2004, the only physical structure remaining from the historic school is the former&nbsp;headmasters house.&nbsp;

The Academy was a leading institution from 1805 until it closed during the Great Depression

The gate heading up to the headmasters house. This is all that is left after the fire in 2004. 

The Bellefonte Academy once was an historic school that operated at this location from the early 1800s until the Great Depression. The beautiful limestone structure was later converted into an apartment building, home to numerous residents of the city until a fire destroyed 75% of the building in 2004. A leading private academy, the school educated more governors, judges, and senators that any other in Pennsylvania during the 19th century.

Bellefonte Academy 

This walking tour of Bellefonte includes several museums and historic landmarks. The tour winds its way through this small Pennsylvania town and concludes at the Bellefonte Forge House. 

History of Bellefonte Walking Tour

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Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Gamble Mill is a historic grist mill that was built in 1894 by a company called Gerberich, Hale & Co. It was constructed on the foundations of a mill destroyed by a fire. The mill earned its name from one of its shareholders, George Gamble, who purchased his share around 1901. Eventually, Gamble assumed ownership sometime before 1923. The mill stopped operating in 1947. For a time, the building housed a restaurant called the Gamble Mill Restaurant, which closed in 2015.

Gamble Mill

The Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society self-describes its mission as "promoting,&nbsp;preserving, and fostering a public appreciation of the railroading heritage of Bellefonte and Centre County, Pennsylvania."&nbsp; First chartered in 1984 to provide excursions on the Nittany &amp; Bald Eagle Railroad (from Lock Haven to Bellefonte). That was when they acquired the 1953-built rail&nbsp;diesel car #9167. &nbsp;&nbsp; BHRS also acquired the Bellefonte Central Railroad Snow Plow #100 in 1987. It was built by the Russel Snow Plow Company in Ridgeway, PA, sometime around the turn of the 20th century.&nbsp;Along with snowplow, BHRS purchased the Bellefonte Central Railroad Caboose #103, built around 1922. In 1992, the society acquired a 1962 rail diesel car, #9153. Both historic&nbsp;RDCs ran along the Nittany &amp; Bald Eagle Railroad until 2005, when mechanical issues required both cars to retire from transportation. There are plans to reinstate #9167 in 2015, following some mechanical work. Today BHRS sponsors two annual excursions along the Nittany &amp; Bald Eagle Railroad (and other smaller events throughout the year). To participate in any events, see the preserved train cars,&nbsp;or for the chance to ride on the historic railroad, visit the society's website and check upcoming events.

The town of Bellefonte (and Centre County generally) were built along and heavily influenced by the presence of the railroad infrastructure, which connected an otherwise rural area to the major cities and places of learning around the country. Yet today those railroads have receded to car traffic, and little attention is given to this older form of transportation. Thus the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society was created to attempt to preserve and display the heritage of the railroads in Bellefonte. Twice a year, the society takes an excursion along the NBER in historical train cars.

The Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society

After Edward Humes' death in 1895, his children William Potter Humes and Ann Elmira Humes took up ownership of the house and decided to renovate it.&nbsp;The Humes siblings remodeled the house extensively, including moving the entire house several feet from the street. The house stayed in the Humes family until Ann's death in 1934, when she donated the house for use as a public library.&nbsp;The house officially opened as the&nbsp;Centre County Library&nbsp;in 1939. In 1977, the main library collection moved across the street. The house continues to serve as the administrative offices for the library, and more importantly as a specialize local history and genealogical reference library. The Miles-Humes House is a 2 1/2-story, five bay rectangular limestone&nbsp;building in the&nbsp;Georgian&nbsp;style architecture. It has a low pitch, gable roof and three&nbsp;dormer&nbsp;windows. In 1896, the house was moved 12 feet from the street and elevated 4 feet off the ground in order to add on new porches to the front and side of the building. The north wing was also removed and replaced with a three-story addition to the back of house.

The Miles-Humes house was originally built circa 1814-1816 for Captain Joseph Miles, the co-founder of both Milesburg, Pennsylvania and the Centre Furnace Iron Works. He sold the house in 1830 to William Wilson Potter and his wife, Lucy, who continued to reside in the house after William's death in 1839. She lived in the house alone until she convinced her niece, Lucy Alexander, and nephew-in-law, Edward Humes, to move in with her. The House now serves the Centre County Library & Historical Museum.

Miles-Humes House

The Centre County Courthouse has been the seat of county government since 1805, when the first section of the building was completed. Typical of government buildings throughout the country in the 19th century, the courthouse was designed in the Greek Revival style, featuring a large portico with 6 Ionic columns. It was expanded several times over the course its history, the very last of which to occur in 1964. Its architect, Joseph M. Huston, also designed the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In front of the building stands the Soldiers and Sailors War Memorial and the statue of Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin (c.1815-1894), who was governor during the Civil War through early 1867. 

Centre County Courthouse

Henry&nbsp;Brockerhoff was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1794. His parents were wealthy, who were able to provide him a good education. He attended school in France then enrolled in the University of Leipsic. He left the university to serve in Napolean Bonaparte's army, where he rose in the ranks to become Napolean's undersecretary. After Napolean was exiled in 1815, Brockerhoff decided to go to Australia. On the way there, the ship was wrecked and he and the rest of its passengers were transferred to an American ship, which sailed to Philadelphia. From there, Brockeroff made his way to Bellefonte in 1825.&nbsp; A successful businessman, he bought the Pennsylvania Hotel in 1840, which burned down in 1864. Undeterred, he decided to build the Brockerhoff Hotel, completing it in 1866. In addition to the hotel and the mill, which was believed to have been built in 1862, he was a stockholder and president of the&nbsp;Centre County Banking Company during the 1860s. The Brockerhoff family owned the building for well over a century. It is not clear when it was converted into an assisted living residence. The first floor features a few businesses.

This beautiful building is one of Bellefonte's main landmarks, serving as a reminder to the city's growing prosperity in the 19th century and to the Victorian era. The building was constructed in 1866 by Henry Brockerhoff in the Italianate Revival style but was later renovated in the 1880s with Queen Anne style elements. It operated as a hotel before being converted into an assisted-living residence. Brockerhoff also owned a historic grist mill in Benner Township. Both buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  

Brockerhoff House

Originally made of limestone, this&nbsp;2&nbsp;1⁄2-story house was constructed in the vernacular form of the&nbsp;Federal&nbsp;or&nbsp;Georgian&nbsp;style with ten and a half foot ceiling heights. It originally had nine fireplaces, but two were removed to make a modern kitchen in the 1930s. It is thought that a&nbsp;John G. Lowry&nbsp;was the architect, as he was the only registered architect in the area at that time and was also in the employment of his cousin, John Dunlop. Building receipts for the finish carpenter, John Patterson, can still be found in the Centre County Library and Historical Museum in Bellefonte. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Bellefonte became the center of a large iron industry. John Dunlop was one of the most energetic and prosperous of those that went into that business, building Harmony Forge (1795), Belle Font Forge (1797), Logan Furnace (1797), and Washington Forge (1810). It was his father, Lt. Col. James Dunlop, and his brother-in-law, James Harris, who actually laid out the town, now a Borough, of Bellefonte from land that John Dunlop owned.&nbsp;After John Dunlop's death, his iron business was rented, then bought by ironmasters in the Valentine family 1815–1879. This home represents the wealth of those ironmasters as the Valentines added the&nbsp;Victorian&nbsp;porches in the 1860s. The Bellefonte Forge House was continuously used until 1994 when it became vacant and was damaged by vandals and animals. However, after 2001 it was restored to its past condition by Michael C. Immel.&nbsp;Today, the Bellefonte Forge House still overlooks the water of Logan's Branch where John Dunlop started his Belle Font Forge in 1797.

The Bellefonte Forge House, also known as the John Dunlop House, is located just south of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, in Spring Township, Centre County. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, due to its connection with prominent figures in the iron industry of the early 19th century and because of its domestic architecture influenced by the Federal style. It was built in 1803 by an ironmaster, John Dunlop, who lived there with his wife and four daughters until he was killed in an iron mine collapse in October 1814

History of Bellefonte Walking Tour

Bellefonte Academy

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources