About the Centre Hall Community
Potter Township and Centre County
Historical villages, neighborly
people and quality living.
Centre Hall Boy Scout Troop 20 has long been committed to honoring the history and traditions of the Penns Valley region. For the past three years, the Troop has been responsible for daily trash pick up at the world-famous Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair or at www.pafairs.org/centrecountyfair/. In October, 2000 and 2001, the boys of the troop helped raise funds to build a new historical museum and library for Aaronsburg by portraying legendary characters in skits at the Haunted Cave program at Woodward Caves. Several times each year, the Troop cleans up the trash along State Rt. 144 near Potter's Mills.
Potter Township, the oldest in the County, was first settled in 1767 and incorporated by
Northumberland County in 1774. It was named for General James Potter of Revolutionary War fame,
who first saw his Penns Valley "empire" in 1765 from atop Nittany Mountain at the crest between Pleasant
Gap and Centre Hall. In the early 1770s he returned to the site of his explorations, began to acquire land,
and built a home. He erected a stockade around his house and a nearby spring at Old Fort, making it the
anchor of a chain of three forts at the foot of Nittany Mountain for defense against Indians. In the 1780s he
built a log house, tavern, grist mill, and saw mill at what became known as Potter's Mills, at the northern
end of the gap through the Seven Mountains along the early road that connected Bellefonte and
Lewistown. Learn more about dedicated township government leaders at www.pottertownship.org/
. Learn more about the excellent Penns Valley School District at www.pennsvalley.org/
and our community library at www.centrehall.com/library/
.
Centre Hall Borough, at the intersection of two early roads, has served for more than 150 years as the market
center for the farming communities that are located in richly agricultural Brush and Penns Valleys. The Grange, an
organization promoting farming and farm life, formed a local chapter in 1873 under the leadership of Centre Hall area
farmer Leonard Rhone. A year later the first Grange Fair was held. It started as a basket picnic in Leech Woods
west of town, and has evolved into the annually held Grange Fair and Encampment, the oldest of its kind in the
country. The Centre Hall Hotel was built in 1847. The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad, later acquired by the
Pennsylvania Railroad system, brought its passenger service into Centre Hall in 1884.
Learn more about Centre Hall at www.centrehall.com.