Centre County officials, community members celebrate ‘turning point’ for a historic site
More than 100 people gathered at Curtin Village on Sunday to celebrate a new chapter for the historic Centre County site.
Eagle Iron Works at Curtin Village, the longest-running iron works in Pennsylvania, was state-owned for decades. That changed in December, when the commonwealth transferred the property to the Roland Curtin Foundation, the local nonprofit that has managed the site since the late ‘60s. Volunteers, elected officials and community members attended Sunday’s event to welcome this next step, with Centre County Commissioners proclaiming July “Eagle Ironworks at Curtin Village Month.”
“One day someone will look back at this moment,” Sue Hannegan, president of the foundation’s board, said, “and see it as a turning point, a moment when ownership became more than a title, a moment when it became a shared promise, a promise to care, a promise to preserve, and a promise to move forward together.”
More than a title indeed, ownership enables the foundation to apply for grants unavailable to state-owned entities, establish endowments, launch capital campaigns and ensure local control over a historic site.
“It used to be just a place,” Commissioner Steve Dershem said, speaking from a podium in front of Curtin mansion. “Not that the state wasn’t an amazing steward, but I don’t think their heart and soul was in it the way you get when you get dozens and dozens of volunteers involved.”
A focus on history
Many volunteers came Sunday, some arriving early in the morning to help set up. It rained all morning but turned hot and sunny in time for the event to start at 1 p.m. Guests sat in rows of plastic chairs under white tents, some wearing thick layers of period dress. Volunteer Charles Dumas, in a woolen uniform, came dressed as his great-great-grandfather, who fought in the 52nd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry.
Odes to history abounded. There were apple cakes, Irish music and Irish dance, nods to one of Curtin Village’s founders, Roland Curtin, an Irish immigrant. As Philip Ruth, vice president of the Roland Curtin Foundation, read a speech from a 1797 Independence Day celebration, glasses clinked and Irish dance shoes clomped.
Volunteer Michael Kinney, dressed as Abraham Lincoln with a stately chin curtain and top hat, was married last August on the Curtin Village furnace, where iron was forged for more than a century.
“We kind of took that upon ourselves to forge our love and really connected a lot of symbology through iron working and also love,” Kinney said.
History lessons pervaded the afternoon, with several speakers praising Pennsylvania’s former Gov. Andrew Gregg Curtin, who lived at Curtin mansion. Others noted the importance of Curtin Village to Pennsylvania’s Juniata Iron region, which produced nearly half of the state’s iron at its peak.
Curtin Village shut down in 1922 after a fire, when charcoal-fueled iron production could no longer compete with cheaper methods. More than a century later, supporters of the site were emphasizing preservation over profit.
“Can you imagine this property going to the highest bidder?” said state Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, who sponsored the bill of transfer. “That would be a tragedy.”
Instead, the state conveyed the property for $1.
Takac offered Hannegan a key he said belonged to Gov. Andrew Gregg Curtin as a symbolic token of transfer. Later, children marched around the mansion’s front lawn with straw baskets, doling out keys to guests.
Many guests came bearing gifts of their own.
Curtin family member John Curtin III donated a framed letter he said Abraham Lincoln had sent to Gov. Andrew Gregg Curtin. Dershem donated an item he had discovered at an estate sale several years ago: a stamp with an image of Curtin Village. U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Howard, presented a check for $5,000.
“It rained on us earlier, and it’s continuing to rain on us,” Hannegan said, “with some things that just aren’t water.”
Ahead of the ceremony, Will Curtin, the only Curtin family member on the board, donated half a million dollars to one of the foundation’s two endowments.
In 1967, Will Curtin’s father, Hugh Laird “Bud” Curtin, had made the “painful decision,” in Will Curtin’s words, to give Curtin Village to RCF, which then transferred the property to the state. In recent decades, Will Curtin fretted over the future of the site. In 2022, he learned from Hannegan about the foundation’s plans to assume ownership of the property. He was elated.
“Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I wanted to do,” Will Curtin recalled thinking. “This would fulfill my dad’s passion and the passion that he instilled in me to make sure that this thing goes forward.”
Curtin Village was one of dozens of sites the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission planned to deaccession over several decades, starting in 1981.
“The state was very ambitious about taking sites like this,” Thompson said. “I think they quickly found they didn’t have the money to be able to invest in these historical sites.”
Many guests Sunday praised the transfer of Curtin as a boon to the historic site and its preservation.
“We’ll continue to partner with the Roland Curtain Foundation and others to preserve, to protect and strengthen this incredibly important historic site,” Takac said.
Volunteers, donations needed
Despite a recent resurgence in gifts, the Roland Curtin Foundation still needs resources to fulfill that mission.
“We could do so much more if we had support,” volunteer Karen Bryan said.
Bryan discovered Curtin Village through her husband, who lived in the workers’ village at Curtin Village until he was six years old. Sitting with Bryan at a picnic table was Rich Watters, another volunteer, in an outfit of linen he crafted himself.
The pair stuck around well into the event’s third hour, after most guests had departed. Both insisted on the singularity of Curtin Village.
“It’s the best history place around Centre County,” Watters said.
Volunteers hope the next generation will sustain this devotion. More than 15 children came to Sunday’s event, according to Renea Nash-Nichols, who manned the “kids’ table” throughout the afternoon.
“We really wanted the kids to understand,” Nash-Nichols said, “hey, you’re inheriting this.”
Curtin Village is inviting people to “Echoes of the Revolution,” a program featuring stories about five veterans who settled around Eagle Iron Plantation after the Revolutionary War, on July 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 per person. Information about this and other upcoming events can be found on the Curtin Village website.
