Centre County has many memorials dedicated to veterans. See 10 of them
Memorial Day has arrived and it’s more than the unofficial kick off to summer — it’s a day to honor and remember those who died while serving in the United States military.
Throughout Centre County there are many places and ways veterans are honored with memorials and monuments. Some honor all veterans while others pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Below is a look at ten of them.
Bellefonte
Allegheny Street
The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in the diamond in Bellefonte features more than 3,000 names of Centre County veterans from the American Revolution, the Civil War and more. In the center of the display is a statue of Bellefonte native Andrew Curtin, who was the governor of Pennsylvania during the Civil War. The memorial was unveiled in 1906 and was restored in the last ten years. The monument is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
Burnside Township
Burnside Township Park
In this display, an American flag is centered in a stone garden in the shape of a ribbon with the Burnside Township Veterans Honor Roll. A memorial for Karthaus man Andrew Jodon, who lost his life in Iraq in 2005, is also featured and the baseball field is named in his honor.
Boalsburg
Pennsylvania Military Museum, 51 Boal Ave.
The Pennsylvania Military Museum and the 28th Infantry Division Shrine is located on the training grounds where the Boal Troop began in 1916. What started as a World War I memorial has grown to feature over two dozen monuments and memorials for thousands of veterans.
On the third Sunday of each May, the Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th Infantry Division gather for a ceremony at the shrine.
The military museum is currently closed for renovations, but the grounds remain open and special events will continue to take place there, including several events over Memorial Day weekend.
Centre Hall
2928 Penns Valley Pike
In 2018, Central Pennsylvania Institute of Science and Technology students built the veterans memorial outside of American Legion Smith-Pletcher Post 779. The memorial along state Route 45 features flags and plaques for all the branches of the military. For a donation, bricks were engraved with names and a QR code allows visitors to locate the bricks.
Clarence
781 Clarence Road
A keystone has the year 1943 at the veterans memorial in Clarence, which is located across from the post office. The Clarence Bridge of Freedom for All Veterans is just down the road from the memorial.
Howard
300 block of Walnut Street
In the Howard Community Park, flags of all the military branches were presented by the Howard VFW in 2010. Bricks are engraved with local veteran names and the large memorial reads “All Gave Some, Some Gave All.”
Ridge Crest Drive (At Bald Eagle State Park)
Centre County’s only Medal of Honor recipient, Foster Sayers, is honored with a memorial next to the dam, which is also named after him. Sayers was 20 years old when he was killed in World War II in France. The memorial with a 5-foot soldier statue and flags was dedicated in 2012 next to the 25-foot Betsy Ross flag made by elementary students in 1976. The memorial grew in 2017 when CPI students created a brick plaza in the shape of a Keystone.
Philipsburg
North Front Street
A World War II Sherman tank and six naval shells guard the Moshannon Valley Veterans Memorial along U.S. Route 322. A wall pays tribute to over 400 veterans from the region who sacrificed their lives in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and post-Vietnam wars, reading “supreme sacrifice.” Volunteers continue to raise money and maintain the memorial.
Pleasant Gap
435 S. Main St.
Outside of the Pleasant Gap Legion is the Arms for Peace Family Memorial that honors central Pennsylvanians who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2003-2013. Seven Centre County residents are remembered on the wall that was dedicated Nov. 12, 2011. “May you find meaning inside the open arms of this memorial,” it reads.
University Park
Pollock Road
Veterans Plaza on the Penn State University Park campus honors all Penn State students, living and deceased, who served in the military. The curved wall is named to honor Lt. Michael P. Murphy, the first Penn State alumnus to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
