Historic Centre County site ‘coming back to the community’ after years of state ownership
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- The Roland Curtin Foundation acquired Curtin Village from the commonwealth in December.
- Transfer lets the foundation pursue grants, capital campaigns, and an endowment.
- Transfer included a bill of sale, deed conveying 10.28 acres, and a 25-year Corps lease.
For decades, a group of Centre County volunteers managed the site of the longest operating charcoal ironworks in Pennsylvania. Now, that group officially owns it and is looking forward to the next chapter of the site’s history.
On Sunday, an event at Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village in Boggs Township will commemorate the transfer of the site from the commonwealth to the Roland Curtin Foundation for the Preservation of Eagle Furnace (RCF). The change not only creates potential funding opportunities, but also restores local ownership of one of Centre County’s most historic sites.
“It’s coming back to the community,” said Renea Nash-Nichols, a volunteer at Curtin Village.
Until recently, Curtin Village was state-owned. In the 1960s, the Curtin family — descendants of former Pennsylvania Gov. Andrew Gregg Curtin — gave the site to the commonwealth for restoration as a museum. Around the same time, the RCF was created to give tours, plan events and help maintain the historic property, which was home to the birth family of the former governor.
In December, the RCF acquired Curtin Village, and with it, freedom to improve tours at the site, launch a capital campaign, start an endowment and seek grant money. Under state ownership, Curtin Village was barred from state and federal grants. Now, the nonprofit RCF can apply for those funds.
Many supporters of Curtin Village are embracing this milestone. One person promised to donate antique corn planters. Someone else gave a caboose, set to arrive Monday.
“The exciting thing is to see the responses from the public,” Sue Hannegan, director of the RCF, said in a recent interview with the Centre Daily Times. “It’s a blessing, actually.”
A lengthy transfer
In 2019, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) announced its intention to find new owners for Curtin Village, surprising board members of the RCF. The 12 members of the board, which had been reconstructed just three years prior, were skeptical of their ability to own and run the site. They were unaware that PHMC had been planning this move for nearly four decades.
“They’ve been trying to get this site off their books,” Phil Ruth, vice president of the RCF, recently told the CDT.
In the early ‘80s, a series of funding cuts forced the PHMC to create the first of two “Blue Ribbon Reports,” guides to transfer, or deaccession, many historical sites out of state possession. According to the minutes from the first report, which is unpublished, one PHMC staff member expressed hopes to “quit trying to do so much that is mediocre.” At that time, the PHMC owned and managed 57 properties.
By 2019, that number had whittled down to 14. The 1981 Blue Ribbon Report had evaluated sites in terms of three criteria — historical significance, integrity and interpretation — and ranked Curtin Village among the least important sites in its possession.
Members of the RCF disagreed, and in 2021 drafted a document titled “Contributing Statements of Significance,” which made the case for the state to retain ownership of Curtin Village.
The document highlights the importance of the site to the history of Pennsylvania’s Juniata Iron Region, which, at its peak, produced nearly a fifth of the country’s iron. When Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village closed in 1922 after over a century of business, it was the only remaining iron works of its kind in Pennsylvania.
The PHMC upheld the decision to deaccession Curtin Village, and the RCF sought advice. A meeting with community members and representatives from Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, Penn State and the Historic Bellefonte, Inc. motivated the RCF to protect Curtin Village.
Through a second meeting with elected officials, the RCF realized owning the site would allow them to apply for grants previously unavailable to them.
Encouraged, the board proceeded with the transfer. The bill went through the House, Senate and Governor, with state Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, as sponsor.
“I believe, and my colleagues believe,” Takac said, “that it was in the best interest of the people of the commonwealth to transfer this very significant historical site to the foundation that was dedicated to making it even better for the people of Pennsylvania.”
Six years and seven months after the RCF received news of the PHMC’s intention to deaccession Curtin Village, the transfer became official.
1 transfer, 3 deals
The transfer agreement between the commonwealth and the Roland Curtin Foundation involved multiple steps. Forty acres, where the workers’ village and furnace sit, belong to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, so the RCF negotiated a 25-year lease with them for this land. Next, a bill of sale transferred the 19 structures on that land from the state to the foundation. A final deed of transfer conveyed 10.28 acres of land with its buildings, owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, to the RCF.
Artifacts needed sorting, too. A sofa said to have been in the Harrisburg governor’s mansion when Andrew Gregg Curtin was in office was property of the state, so the RCF received it on loan. The foundation also kept a grandfather’s clock on loan. Some items were returned to the state, while others were transferred from the state to the foundation.
Curtin Village is still a nationally registered historic site. Given this status, the RCF needs permission from the PHMC to make any alterations to the site. Should the RCF fail to do so, or otherwise violate the transfer agreement, a reverter clause allows the state to reclaim Curtin Village.
“We certainly don’t foresee that,” Takac said.
Neither does the RCF.
“It’s a daunting task,” said Ruth, “but we’ve already done a lot.”
On Sunday at 1 p.m., the RCF will celebrate the transfer of ownership at Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village. More than 100 people, including members of the Curtin family and elected officials, are expected to attend. Several people who helped secure local control of the site are scheduled to speak, including the Centre County Commissioners. The event will conclude with a reception, a walking tour and an Irish dance performance.
People who wish to come should RSVP by emailing curtinvillage@gmail.com.
