From the beautiful Victorian homes to the sites enshrined in the National Register of Historic Places, nearly everywhere you turn in Bellefonte, you can see traces of the rich history of our community. Local Historia, a group with a “passion for local history, community, and preservation,” is a terrific source for finding out more about this history, and one of their most important recent projects is their tour, “The Underground Railroad in Bellefonte, PA.”

A collaboration between Local Historia and members of the Leadership Centre County (LCC Class of 2022), this self-guided tour lets residents and visitors to the area learn about the vital Black history of Bellefonte. Local Historia founder and historian Matt Maris noted, “From the town’s beginnings, we had a significant Black community in the 19th century connected to trades in the iron industry. ... Black history has always been a part of Bellefonte’s economic, cultural, religious, and political fabric.”

The self-guided tour begins at the Bellefonte Art Museum, formerly the Linn House, and contains a permanent exhibit on the Linn House’s history as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Maris stated, “Our Underground Railroad history is powerful and well documented. We’ve had enslaved Freedom Seekers find refuge in Bellefonte, but some were also re-captured on our very streets, chained, and returned to slavery.”

The tour continues through six more major locations in Bellefonte. Though not all of the stops on the tour are documented sites on the Underground Railroad, the locations selected for the tour are all connected in some way to this noteworthy piece of American history.

“I strongly believe that learning local history is one of the best ways of connecting with a community,” said Maris, and this tour provides a captivating look at a history about which many Bellefonte residents may be unaware.

You may have seen the plaque near the Governor’s Pub that notes that William H. Mills, the grandfather of the Mills Brothers singing group, had a barbershop there. This is one of the stops on the tour because William H. Mills was a towering figure in the history of Bellefonte, with his life and writing as the source of much of what is known about Bellefonte’s connections to the Underground Railroad. Mills, a leading member of the A.M.E. church, was not only part of the petition to desegregate Bellefonte’s schools in 1895, but he even hosted (and cut the hair of) abolitionist icon Frederick Douglass as he toured Bellefonte to give a speech in 1872.

The tour is full of consequential and fascinating looks into the history of this area, including St. Paul AME Church, the Samuel Harris House, and the courthouse, where, as Maris put it, “Freedom Seekers stood chained in our courthouse, and in our jail, awaiting their fate, only to be remanded back into the cruelty of slavery.” In Union Cemetery, behind the courthouse, Black soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War are buried.

Local Historia, who typically conduct guided tours of the area, saw so much interest in this fascinating and important part of our history that they decided to make it self-guided to remove any barrier of cost and accessibility to the public.

When asked what he hoped those who took the tour would get out of the experience, Maris said, “Learning about American Slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the American Civil War, are all essential to understanding ourselves as Americans and even human beings in this world. We hope this tour helps participants have a valuable experience, by learning about such topics at the local level.”

The tour is always evolving, with Maris recently adding two more stops, with plans to include more locations in the future. The tour also may expand to include other important Underground Railroad locations in Centre County. The tour route, along with information about each specific stop, can be found on Local Historia’s website: localhistoria.com/tap-into-history. It’s a tour that can be taken on foot or by car, whatever way might work best for you.

We encourage you to travel back through time and delve into the compelling and significant Black history of our borough of Bellefonte through Local Historia’s much-needed tour.