Uncovering Bellefonte’s Past: BHCA’s Ongoing Historical Projects and Preservation Efforts
BHCA is best known for its public programming. We sponsor poetry readings, lectures, contests, exhibits, and lots of music. However, we also work on projects that align with our mission. They are few in number, slow in execution, and, for the most part, go unnoticed. However, we believe the eventual outcome of these projects will be something valuable: a new understanding, an addition or correction to the historical record, an instructive image, or a document to help people understand Bellefonte. Currently, BHCA is undertaking four projects. Two are in a preliminary stage, one is about to launch, and the other is only aspirational. These projects have no deadline, move forward slowly, and are propelled by the availability of volunteer interest and financial support. If any of these interest you, let us know. You can be sure we will need help to bring them to fruition.
Researching the origin of the name of Bellefonte
Kathleen Wunderly seems to have demolished the main myth about the naming of Bellefonte in her book, Fountain of Misinformation, Talleyrand and the naming of Bellefonte. She argues persuasively that Talleyrand never viewed the Big Spring or uttered the defining phrase, "La belle font." Other theories remain. One claims that Bellefonte was named after an early establishment along Logan Branch called Bell Font Forge. Yet another claims the town is named after a southern plantation owned by a relative of one of the town's founders. It seems that this minor mystery could be resolved with sufficient historical research. Bellefonte was named after the first national census and there are extant documents which might provide a compelling explanation of how our town got its name. BHCA wants to be the entity that finally clears up this question. We are coaxing several local historians to invest the requisite effort to resolve the matter. If we succeed, the result will be an article of great interest to local historians.
Cataloging historic house styles in Bellefonte
This is our aspirational project. We have not yet begun it. Fortunately, a recent project by the Borough of Bellefonte has produced Historic District Design Guidelines, which includes a discussion of historic house styles found in the Historic District.
Historic Renderings Project
We want to produce renderings of downtown Bellefonte streetscapes at various times in the history of our town, say 1850, 1880, and 1910. These would show a view of the buildings on one side of the street on one downtown block. To guide us, we have extant buildings, the Sanborn maps, and photographs of lost buildings at known locations. Besides this hard data, we can use historical research, newspaper accounts of fires, and some guesswork to literally paint a picture of what the town looked like long ago. This project is interdisciplinary, requiring knowledge of late 18th and 19th-century American architecture, research skills, project management, and the ability to create appealing renderings. Once started, this will be an ongoing effort.
Documenting Downtown, building by building
Bellefonte's architecture has been celebrated and described for well over a century. Individuals, journalists, and government officials have taken thousands of photographs and written extensively about the remarkable buildings that distinguish our town. Most of this work lies buried in archives and is seldom seen. BHCA proposes to recover and present the best of this earlier work on this website and to supplement it with some of its own. Our goal is to gradually develop a comprehensive database of photographs and descriptions of the buildings in our downtown.