ABCs of Centre County

Penn Hall (Gregg) – The Robert Cooke Tavern provided refreshments and accommodations for travelers as an early stop on the Bellefonte-Aaronsburg-Youngmanstown (Mifflinburg) Turnpike. The Robert Cooke Tavern, the Jared Fisher house, and the Penn Hall Academy are a few of the buildings on either side of Route 45 that make up the village of Penn Hall. The first Presbyterian Church in Centre County, organized in 1795, was located near Penn Hall.

Pennsylvania Furnace (Ferguson) – Lyons, Shorb and Co. began charcoal ironmaking at Pennsylvania Furnace in 1810 and continued its operation until 1888. The company held vast landholdings in both Ferguson Township and nearby Huntingdon County, with the stack located on approximately the county line. As with other ironmaking locations, the village of Pennsylvania Furnace grew up around the operation. While little remains of the stack area, the ironmaster's mansion serves as a prominent reminder of the importance of this industry to central Pennsylvania.

Philipsburg Borough – "Lying in the mountainous region of Rush township, on the Moshannon Creek, five hundred and forty-five feet above Tyrone, and six hundred below the mountain summit, is a stirring enterprising town of about eighteen hundred inhabitants. The interests that sustain it lie chiefly in the lumbering and coal mining operations carried on in the adjacent territory". (John Blair Linn, 1883)

Henry and James Philips laid out Philipsburg, the largest community in Moshannon Valley, in 1797. Philipsburg prospered under the leadership of their younger brother, Hardman. In addition to its associations with lumber and coal mining, Philipsburg was also home for the celebrated wood-screw mill, built by Hardman Philips in 1821. This wood-screw mill was the first of its kind in the United States. In 1828 Philips and Dr. John Plumbe built Plumbe Forge on Six Mile Run to supply iron for the screw factory and other enterprises. Pig iron for the forge was hauled over the mountain from Bald Eagle Valley. The forged iron was then hauled to Alexandria and Petersburg in Huntingdon County to be shipped elsewhere on the Pennsylvania Canal.

Pine Glen (Snow Shoe) – Tremendous stands of fine timber attracted settlers to Pine Glen in the 1840s. Pine Glen is located in Centre County's most northern Burnside Township, where first lumbering then coal provided economic incentives. More recently, in the 1950s, a new community was laid out to house employees of the Curtis-Wright Corporation. A research and development center was planned but not completed at Quehanna, north of Karthaus in Clearfield County.

Pine Grove Mills/Pattonville (Ferguson) – Near the headwaters of Slab Cabin Run, Pine Grove Mills was another early ironmaking site as well as the location for several mills. Tussey Furnace, put into blast in 1810, had a short industrial life (it closed in 1815), but Slab Cabin Run provided the water power for a series of mills to serve the area's agricultural needs. The first of these mills was built in 1800. The Ard Mill, built on the same location near the present intersection of Routes 45 and 26, was destroyed by fire in 1928. A plaster mill, located just above the old gristmill sites on Slab Cabin Run, a distillery, the Pine Grove Mills Academy, and a passenger station for the Pennsylvania Railroad were all part of this busy community.

Pleasant Gap/Connelly's Gap (Spring) – Once called Connelly's Gap and named for an early tavern keeper, the village of Pleasant Gap did not receive its official name until 1845 when a post office was established. Its mountain gap location has served as a transportation route for more than 200 years. Native American paths, pack horse trails, and an early turnpike all crossed through this gap connecting Penns Valley with Nittany Valley. Nearby Blue Spring, reputed to be a one-time camp of Mingo Chief Logan, is the origin of Spring Creek's Logan Branch. A rich vein of limestone, an outcrop of the same high-grade limestone that is found along the Muncy Mountain near Bellefonte, has been mined since 1905.

Poe Mills (Penn) – A booming logging location in the 1890s, Poe Mills had a population of more than 300 and provided employees with houses, stores, and a post office. A few nearby hunting cabins were originally loggers' homes.

Port Matilda Borough (Worth) – Squire Clement Beckwith laid out the town in 1850 and named it to honor his daughter, Matilda. Why he chose to call it Port Matilda is not clear, but the name may have reflected his hope that the town would eventually be connected to the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Branch of the Pennsylvania canal. While the canal did not reach Port Matilda, the Bald Eagle Railroad did, and the community became a market center in the Bald Eagle Valley for agricultural and lumber products.

Potter's Mills/Potter's Bank (Potter) – Three generations of Potters are associated with this community at the northern end of the gap through Seven Mountains. General James Potter built a log house and tavern in 1788, to serve travelers along the early road that connected Bellefonte and Lewistown. A year later he added a gristmill James Potter, opened a store in 1790 and a few years later built a stone gristmill. In 1824 grandsons John and James Potter replaced the early log tavern with a brick hotel, now substantially enlarged and known as the Eutaw House. Judge Potter's early Georgian-style brick home, substantially enlarged with an 1850s Victorian addition, is nearby.

Poweltown/Nuttallville (Rush) – John Nuttall purchased a piece of land on the northern slopes of the Alleghenies in 1857 to develop coal mines. The land was originally part of the Hardman Phillips tract. With the completion of the Tyrone-Clearfield Railroad in 1862, coal began to be shipped and a village grew up around the mines. First called Nuttallville, it later was named Powelton for R.H. Powell who bought the mining interest.

Puddintown (College) – About a mile east of State College and just north of what was known as Millbrook, Puddintown is said to have gotten its name from a local family that particularly liked a boiled and seasoned white pudding. It is located near Millbrook Marsh, where Thompson Run merges with the waters of Bathgate Spring, and then joins Slab Cabin Run and Spring Creek.