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State College Penn State is the focus for most
visitors to the Happy Valley. The valley ranks high as one of the best
places to live, with the state’s highest education and lowest
unemployment rates. Residents
cite its metropolitan attractions amid small-town charm, with
countryside and mountains nearby. Its middle-American status is
highlighted by the fact that State College is home to the busiest
Wal-Mart store in the nation, so busy that it now has two. Pennsylvania State University drives
the Centre County economy and brings the world into the isolated valley.
Its Bryce Jordan Center, the 16,000-seat basketball arena, draws major
entertainers and quickly became the top-grossing venue its size upon
opening in 1996. The second-largest collegiate stadium in the country,
the expanded Beaver Stadium always sells out its 107,000 seats for
football games. Founded in 1855 by local iron tycoons
as the Farmers’ High School, it became a land-grant agricultural
college in 1862 and much of its 5,000-acre campus consists of farm
fields. The focal point of the campus is a
small area around the Nittany Lion Shrine, a replica sculpted in
limestone of the North American mountain lion that once roamed the
University Park campus. Nearby is the world-famous University
Creamery, the first to offer collegiate classes in making ice cream.
Ice cream gurus Ben & Jerry got their start from a correspondence
course here. People line up to buy one of the eighteen flavors,
including peachy paterno, named for head football coach Joe Paterno, a
Penn State icon, community benefactor and friend of everyone hereabouts. Almost next door to the Creamery,
bronze lion paws mark the entrance to the Palmer Museum of Art,
the largest between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The post-modern
Renaissance palace addition in 1993 by architect Charles W. Moore was
his last work before his death. Many of the museum’s collections, from
Asian ceramics to rare coins, have been donated by alumni. Check out the stunning Land Grant
Frescoes around the stairwell and mezzanine of the administration
building called Old Main. They were painted in the 1940s by Henry
Varnum Poor to depict the founding, aspirations and early endeavors of
Penn State. One mural shows Abraham Lincoln with a student. The shaded
lawns of Main Mall with its double row of old elms leads to
downtown State College. Across the mall is the Earth and Mineral
Sciences Museum, with the country’s largest collection of mineral
art. State College itself is known
as Tree City USA. Trees line the downtown streets along the southern
edge of the Penn State campus. The downtown hosts the annual Central
Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in mid-July. South of downtown is
Fraternity Row and large fraternity houses amid substantial residences.
With 60 fraternities and 26 sororities, Penn State claims to be the
largest Greek campus in the country.
The mansion where Penn State got its
start is the only remaining building from the iron-producing industry
that prospered around the wilderness site in the mid-1800s. Still
visible is the stack built in 1847 of the Centre Furnace Ironworks. The
community that existed around the ironworks was the first town in the
region of significant size. Its co-owners and ironmasters donated 200
acres of land for a school to educate farmers, the forerunner of Penn
State. Bequeathed to the Centre County Historical Society, the mansion
houses original furnishings and exhibits artifacts and documents
relating to the iron industry. The house and grounds are undergoing
restoration. (814) 234-4779.
www.centrecountyhistory.org. Open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday,
1 to 4. When French statesman Talleyrand,
exiled from France during the revolution, came across the Big Spring
here, he supposedly exclaimed “Quelle belle fonte.” The hilly town
of 6,300 has been called Bellefonte since. The underground spring, with
a daily output of 11½ million gallons, is the source of Bellefonte’s
water supply. Now rather unspectacular, with no evidence of a fountain
and surrounded by concrete walls next to the pumping station on Water
Street, it looks like a large, clear pool. The adjacent Talleyrand Park
at the foot of downtown is credited with the rebirth of Bellefonte.
Townspeople turn out with box suppers for the Sunday evening band
concerts here in summer. Iron ore brought the town’s
founders here and contributed to its flourishing Victorian era. Penn
State buildings bear names of Bellefonte benefactors who kept the
fledgling college afloat. Its status as a county seat gave it political
impact (seven governors, including one from Kansas and one from
California, lived here). Several grand commercial buildings take up
entire blocks of downtown, and impressive 19th-century mansions in a
variety of styles line Linn and Curtin streets. The Bellefonte Museum
for Children & Families emphasizes local history and culture. Fisherman’s
Paradise. One of the East’s most famous catch-and-release
fly-fishing areas is along a picturesque stretch of Spring Creek called
Fisherman’s Paradise southwest of Bellefonte. Licensed fishermen can
try their luck near the Bellefonte Fish Culture Station. The area is the
home of the Richardson Chest Fly Box Co., producer of top custom-crafted
models. Four
miles east of State College is this quaint hamlet settled in 1808 by the
Scotch and Irish. The cemetery here was birthplace in 1864 of Memorial
Day, when three young girls started placing flowers on the graves of
relatives who died in the Civil War and ended up decorating the graves
of all war victims. Decoration Day grew from there. The original streets
and structures around the village “diamond” remain much as they were
a century ago, housing shops, B&Bs and restaurants.
The 1789 mansion has been home to
nine generations of the Boal family who were among the founders of
Boalsburg and Penn State. Furnishings and paintings throughout
the main floor testify to this well connected family’s connections
with the likes of Queen Isabella and Napoleon. A hallway portrait shows
a grandson of Christopher Columbus posing with a globe, and an 1860
rosewood reed organ is said to be one of six in the world. The
ninth-generation man of the house still lives upstairs, but had just
left to go swimming, our guide advised. The tour’s highlight is the
Columbus Chapel at the side of the property. It ended up in Pennsylvania
when a fifth-generation Boal married the niece of a direct descendant of
Columbus. Mathilde de Lagarde Boal inherited the chapel attached to a
castle in Spain. She transported its contents, including woodwork,
artwork, confessional and choir loft, and rebuilt it here in 1909. The
fascinating collection features religious artifacts, furnishings and the
explorer’s personal possessions dating to the 1400s. Mass is still
said here every Columbus Day and Christmas for family and friends. (814) 466-6210. www.boalmuseum.com.
Open May-October, Tuesday-Sunday 1:30 to 5; mid-June to mid-September,
Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 5,
Sunday noon to 5. Adults, $10. Shopping.
Downtown State College is where most of it’s at, and there are more
than the predictable chain stores and others appealing to university
types. Everything Penn State for the Penn Stater, even a baby bottle
emblazoned “I’m a Nittany Lion,” is available at Lion’s
Pride. Look for gifts, accessories and hand-painted birdhouses at Beppa’s
and handcrafts from many countries, some a little retro, at Sunshine
Imports. Cute furniture for children, nice totes and aprons and
engraved glassware impressed at Initially Yours by BJ. Check out
the award-winning display windows at Gift Adventures. We never
saw so many varieties of stuffed animals as at The Animal Kingdom;
there’s even a room with a collection representing endangered species.
Tadpole Crossing is one of the better nature stores we’ve seen.
Bostonian Ltd. has offered preppy men’s and women’s clothing
since 1957, when it opened as a men’s shoe store. Mr. Charles
goes back 60 years with ladies’ apparel, though most of the stock now
is quite mod. The Artisan Connection represents 140
artisans, most from Pennsylvania. Appalachian Ski and Outdoors is
a great store for the sportsman. One of the most colorful shops is Kitchen
Kaboodle, where we eyed Portuguese china, fused glass pieces (some
with intricate lilacs), gadgets like a bacon press, cappuccino cups,
pasta dishes and cookbooks. In Bellefonte, Adam & Art is
a spacious gallery, featuring distinctive art and sculptures from
“Bellefonte’s Creative Spirits,” 23 talented local artists. The
Black Cat shows gifts from another group of local crafters. Ruffles
& Treasures offers homemade crafts and gifts. An art teacher
makes a lot of his jewelry at Creekside Rocks & Gems. Check
out the unusual combination at Just Glass and Chocolates. Poetry
readings and entertainment are among the draws at the interesting Cool
Beans Coffee & Tea Shop. So are its Governor’s Blend espresso,
the book Free Refill (a collection of poetry, art and musings
from customers in their original handwriting), and its eco-friendly Grow
Joe food for potted plants, which recycles the shop’s leftover coffee
grounds. In Boalsburg, The Federal House
offers wonderful gifts and garden accents, along with Christmas items,
jewelry and boxes for the tooth fairy. Collectibles and gifts are
featured at Lindsay’s on the Diamond. The Henley House
displays classic women’s wear and accessories. Cookware and gourmet
foods are among the wares at The Country Sampler and A Basket
Full Country Store & Gift Shop. Extra-SpecialPenn’s Cave, 222 Penns Cave
Road, Centre Hall. A cave is a cave is a cave. Except
when it’s America’s only all-water cavern, plus a wildlife
sanctuary. Former Gov. Andrew Curtin from Bellefonte called the cave
“Pennsylvania’s greatest natural wonder” around the time of the
Civil War. Visitors board flat-bottom motorboats for an hour-long guided
tour through the half-mile-long cavern of limestone and shale carved by
an underground stream. Boats go out through the underground cavern to
Lake Nitanee for a glimpse of wildlife and then back through the cavern.
Lit by the boat’s spotlight or in color by hidden cavern lights,
glittering stalactites and stalagmites appear in wild profusion. Some
are clustered in formations given names like the Statue of Liberty,
Garden of the Gods and the Strait of Gibraltar. Others are shaped like a
buddha, an Arizona cactus, the Nittany Lion and a Chinese dragon chasing
a tortoise. It sounds hokey, but isn’t. It’s quite a show. Bring a
jacket, for the cavern temperature is a cool 52 degrees all year. Less
compelling for adults but of interest to children is the 90-minute tour
of the 800-acre Penn’s Cave Farms and Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw Texas
longhorn steers, baby bears, tiny white-tailed fawn, two timber wolves
and four gray wolves. The resident elk and mountain lions didn’t show
up that day. (814) 364-1664. www.pennscave.com.
Tours on the hour, daily 9 to 5, mid-February through November and
December weekends, 9 to 7 in summer. Cavern tour, $11; wildlife tour,
$12.50
Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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