BHCA: Championing Bellefonte’s Arts, Culture, and Historic Preservation Since 1976
In 1976, the Bellefonte Historical and Cultural Association (BHCA) was established as a nonprofit corporation to serve as an umbrella group for two worthwhile civic efforts. One was the Project for the Performing Arts, a theatre group, and the other was a committee struggling to develop that nascent sanctuary we know today as Talleyrand Park. Later, BHCA fostered other efforts such as the Bellefonte Light Opera Company. By 1981, BHCA had evolved into something more than an umbrella group and started offering its own programs, such as Summer Sounds from the Gazebo, the Sunday Afternoon Chamber Music Series, the Film Forum, and Old House Fairs. Some of these projects have come and gone, but Summer Sounds and the Chamber Music Series have been serving residents and visitors for more than forty years. BHCA joined with Victorian Christmas to offer the Victorian Christmas Arts and Crafts Show, another long-lived service to our community.
In 2016, BHCA rescued the Freight House, a charming nineteenth-century trapezoidal railroad building, from near-certain destruction. The 147-year-old structure sat within the footprint of Bellefonte’s waterfront revitalization project and was in the way of progress. At considerable trouble and expense, it was moved to Talleyrand Park where it is now being repurposed as the Dave Kurz Kayak and Canoe Museum.
These days, BHCA is putting most of its energy into promoting new artistic and cultural productions in Bellefonte. It collaborates with the local library and Bellefonte’s brand-new bookstore, The Print Factory, to offer literary events; it collaborates with the Centre County Historical Museum, The Union Cemetery, and Local Historia to bring our local history into sharper focus; and, on its own or with others, works to sponsor dance, music, and visual arts events.
After five Old House Fairs, a vigorous albeit unsuccessful effort to preserve the Garman Opera House, and the successful rescue of the Freight House, BHCA is launching several long-term projects to document Bellefonte’s architectural heritage. And it’s always looking for another opportunity to protect the historic built environment that it celebrates.
Because of its steep hills, beautiful parks, fascinating buildings, and long history, Bellefonte is remarkable. BHCA does what it can to preserve our town’s character but also concerns itself with the quality of our lives here. If our town is the stage, BHCA strives to make the play on that stage, the texture of our life in this town, worthy of our amazing setting. BHCA wants to help you understand our place, appreciate our history, know our cultures, and be lifted up by all the arts.