ABCs of Centre County

Baileyville (Ferguson) – Richard Bailey, who came to the area from Chester County in 1790, founded this small community. His son John, an energetic businessman, built a large gristmill in the center of town. A stream whose source was Rock Spring, about a mile away, powered the gristmill. A sawmill, tannery, carpenter shop, and blacksmith shop were all part of the Bailey family operation. In the 1880s Baileyville began to hold annual picnics. These traditional family gatherings have continued for more than one hundred years. The Baileyville schoolhouse, built in the 1890s, was purchased in the 1930s to serve as a community hall.

Bellefonte Borough/Big Spring – Bellefonte's advantageous location on Spring Creek and near the principal water gap leading into the Nittany Valley favored the town's development as a center of industry and commerce. The Big Spring was, according to local legend, the origin of the town's name – Beautiful Fountain – given by exiled French statesman Talleyrand when he visited the area in 1794-95. James Harris and James Dunlop laid Bellefonte out in a Philadelphia-style grid pattern with the main intersection widened into a market diamond. The County Courthouse became the diamond's architectural centerpoint. Early Georgian-style stone houses were built close together and close to the street. When Bellefonte grew in wealth, political prestige, and population, particularly during the 1860s to 1880s, new residential neighborhoods and commercial buildings were designed in a cosmopolitan range of the latest in Victorian architectural styles. Bellefonte was for many years the pivot of central Pennsylvania politics; its prominence is evidenced by its having been the home of five Pennsylvania governors.

Benore (Patton) – The post office name for the village of Scotia.

Blanchard/Eagleville/Quigley's Mills (Liberty) – This community, located on the Centre-Clinton county line, is the largest in Liberty Township. With vast timber stands nearby, lumbering has been its major industry. During its busiest years, the community hosted three hotels, a cigar manufacturer, an undertaker and cabinet shop, a wagonmaker, shoemaker, and a blacksmith. It was originally known as Quigley's Mills, but later was renamed Eagleville. It became Blanchard, named for attorney John Blanchard of Bellefonte, when it was determined that there was another Eagleville post office in Pennsylvania.

Boalsburg/Springfield (Harris) – Originally called Springfield, Boalsburg was renamed for early settler David Boal. It was laid out in 1809 on a grid pattern with a center diamond, surrounded by 60 quarter-acre lots. A post village for crossroads leading to Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, the first tavern was built on Main (Pitt) Street in 1804. The Boalsburg Tavern (Duffy's) was added in 1819, and Wolf Tavern, which served drovers, was built in 1825. The James Logue Coach Factory, now the Harris Township building, also reflects Boalsburg's early transportation history.

Buffalo Run (Patton) – Early survey maps show this village near the intersection of what are now Routes 322 and 550. The name is reputedly derived from an early buffalo lick located nearby.