Penn State students and professors are working with the Centre County Historical Society to develop a plan for a walking path that will help area residents and visitors understand how local ironmaking during the 19th century led to the creation of Penn State.
The project is part of a grant recently given to the Centre County Historical Society by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
One point planned for the path is the site of the Centre Furnace, near the eastern edge of the University Park campus along Route 26, across the highway from the Centre Furnace mansion. The path will link the furnace site with areas on which the site has had an impact, including Penn State, State College, Millbrook and the Spring Creek corridor.
The site plans include an interpretive path that will recreate the entire Centre Furnace Village for visitors through maps and other information sources that will explain the technology and economics of the iron industry in the Centre Region. Eventually, the site will be linked physically with a natural greenway being developed throughout Centre County's most heavily populated watersheds.
In 1855, land and money donated by Moses Thompson, a Centre Furnace ironmaster, and his partner James Irvin, led to the establishment of the Farmer's High School, which eventually became Penn State.
Involved in the project are Cecilia Rusnak, assistant professor of landscape architecture; Eve Munson, assistant professor of communications; Manish Chalana and Samantha Gregory, both landscape architecture majors; Cyndi Golden, an integrative arts major; Kara Heermans, a communications major; and historical society member Jackie Melander and historic site administrator Sara Kelley.