Bellefonte teachers bring local history to life with walking tour series

Summer may be in session, but for two Bellefonte teachers, the learning hasn’t stopped.

Bellefonte Area High School history and social studies teachers Matt Maris and Chris Morris caught the “local history bug,” and combined their love of research and teaching to create a series of Bellefonte walking tours.

A collaboration between Maris and the Centre County Library and Historical Museum, the tours began as a staff tour for school district employees who wanted to be better informed about the town for their students. From there, Administrative Director Robbin Degeratu asked if Maris would be interested in offering tours to the community. In the fall, Maris asked Morris if she would like to collaborate.

Now, Maris and Morris are helped by fellow coworkers and one student who assist in designing and researching tours.

“We are storytellers. That’s part of what we do as historians,” Morris said. “Yes, we research, and we want to focus on the past, but you have to bring it alive.”

Teachers by profession and learners by nature, Maris said he and Morris learn through their research, saying that as they dove deeper into Bellefonte’s history, they figured out how to make the past less abstract and expand across all subjects — not just history.

From a celebration at the Bush Hotel after Thomas Edison brought electricity to Bellefonte to Amelia Earhart’s stop to refuel while on a flight to Pittsburgh, the walking tour of Bellefonte highlights the town’s historic structures, figures and visitors.

“You start to see those stories coming in, and then, you start linking it together,” Morris said. “Bellefonte has a lot of rich history that people aren’t aware of.”

Giving back to the community is a key theme that motivated Maris and Morris. By showing the contributions past and present Bellefonte residents made to society, Maris thinks students will learn to appreciate and value their hometown rather than dream of leaving.

Rather than teaching from the “top-down,” Maris said he takes a more local “bottom-up” approach.

“We love finding evidence to point at to where it’s easier to connect with the past,” Maris said. “We love the past, but it’s so abstract. When you can think about the people who lived here, it’s a little easier for students to connect to, too. As teachers, we really try to engage with students.”

For Maris, finding ways to connect and engage with students in a more interesting way is easier to do at a local level, and he uses statues and streets throughout town that represent historic figures to add a face to his lessons. Rather than teach history in a broad manner, Maris said he talks about figures from the town who were present during events like the Gettysburg Address and community members who were friends with notable leaders like U.S. President James Garfield.

“It’s like the thrill of the hunt in a way,” Maris said.

Instead of monetary treasure, Maris said attendees walk away having found a wealth of knowledge.

In addition to Bellefonte’s more than 200-year-old history, the walking tours also highlight some of State College and Penn State’s history, focusing on the tragically short-lived romance between the university’s first pre sident President Evan Pugh and Bellefonte’s Rebecca Valentine, and Gov. James Beaver’s friendship with Garfield.

“It is hard to do in an hour,” Maris said. “You really can’t tell Bellefonte’s story in an hour, but we just give little samples (and) little highlights.”

Maris and Morris have designed four tour routes already, but eventually, they would like to create new ones based on community feedback and interest. The tours won’t end when summer does. Both teachers said they want to continue volunteering and use their partnership to create better field trips for the Bellefonte district.

“We don’t hit everything,” Maris said. “We can’t hit everything. We don’t walk by everything, but we hit a lot of the major things on tour.”

Tours are given every Friday through Aug. 23, except July 5. They begin at 1:30 p.m. and start at the Historical Museum. Although the hourlong tours are free, a $5 donation is requested.

This story was originally published June 30, 2019 at 1:58 PM.