New self-guided walking tour highlights Black history in Bellefonte
Bellefonte has many ties to Black history and in an effort to highlight and preserve the history, a new self-guided tour, Tap into History, is launching this weekend.
Created by Centre Servers, a group of Leadership Centre County members, in collaboration with many community partners, the Tap Into History tour has five stops. It begins at the Bellefonte Art Museum, which is believed to have been a stop along the Underground Railroad, heads to “the diamond” in the area of the Centre County Courthouse, then to the area where Mills Barber Shop once stood, the St. Paul A.M.E. Church, and ends at the Gamble Mill area.
The group also dedicated part of the project to the late Rev. Dr. Donna King for her “tremendous contribution” to research on the abolitionist movement in Bellefonte and Centre County, according to its website. She served as pastor of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The tour can be found at www.TapIntoHistory.net. The website includes a map of the walking tour locations, powered by Google Maps, and information and photos of each site.
“There is such an interest in these topics but we recognized a need in making them more accessible to the public,” said Centre Servers member Matt Maris, founder of Local Historia and a social studies teacher at Bellefonte Area High School. “For decades, community members, historians, scholars and others have contributed a great deal to the Underground Railroad narrative in Centre County. We hope this project puts some of that Underground Railroad history at the fingertips of anyone who wants to learn. We also hope the self-guided tour will lay a foundation for continued Underground Railroad education and research into the future.”
Its website states that though not all of the stops on the tour are documented sites on the Underground Railroad, they were chosen because of connections to the Underground Railroad history in Bellefonte. This tour focuses on Bellefonte, but additional features and locations across Centre County are “envisioned” for the future, the website states.
The first tour will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Bellefonte Art Museum, 133 N. Allegheny St., with a group of LCC classmates and community members. A reception and brief presentation to celebrate the launch of Tap Into History will follow from 3-5 p.m. at The Republic at the Gamble Mill. Register for the event by emailing tapintohistory@gmail.com.
After the initial tour, the website will continue to be available to the public, a release states, and a binder of Underground Railroad historical and educational materials will be at the Centre County Library and Historical Museum.
Leadership Centre County is a community leadership development organization that has been creating leaders qualified to serve since 1991. Zach Barton, executive director of LCC, said in a release that each year the LCC participants are put into groups called Juntos. Those groups then plan, develop and execute community service projects.
Those interested in supporting the mission of furthering education about Black history and the Underground Railroad in Centre County can donate to the Bellefonte Art Museum for Centre County, and Centre County Library and Historical Museum. Write “Tap Into History” in the donation description.
