Boalsburg Columbus Ball, Oct 10,
2009, Celebrates Boalsburg's Unique Columbus Connection
Christopher Columbus arrived in America on October 12, 1492. Because
he is the man who opened the door from the Old World to the New World,
initiating the development of what we today call America, Columbus is
the world’s most famous explorer.
One hundred years
ago, the United State had no tangible link with Columbus. But that
changed when Colonel Theodore Davis Boal brought the Columbus Chapel
to Boalsburg from Spain in 1909. Among the contents was an Admiral’s
Desk that belonged to Christopher Columbus himself.
This unique and
unexpected history, art and religion will be celebrated with a
festival, a ball and a religious service on the weekend of October 10,
2009, along with the 201st birthday of the founding of
Boalsburg, an American village. Events include:
1)
the Boalsburg Birthday
Heritage Festival, Saturday, October 10, Noon to 4 pm in the Boalsburg
village square
2)
the Boalsburg Columbus
Ball (see below), also on Saturday, October 10, at 7:30 pm in the Boal Mansion,
3)
a meeting of the
non-profit Centre County Columbus Celebration board on Sunday, October
11 at the Boal Mansion and
4)
a religious service in
the Columbus Chapel on Monday, October 12, served by the Pennsylvania
Knights of Columbus and followed by a reception in the Boal Mansion.
Guests at the October 10th Boalsburg
Columbus Ball will sip champagne and taste fine
hors d'oeuvres from area restaurants in the Boal Mansion's dining room
and dance in the elegant ballroom surrounded by portraits and
memorabilia from the Boals of Boalsburg.
Historic persons from Boalsburg’s rich history will appear at the ball,
including the pioneer David Boal portrayed by his descendant
Pittsburgh broadcaster Alan Boal, the three ladies who started
Memorial Day in 1864, Judge George Boal, one of Penn State
University’s founders, and Colonel Theodore Davis Boal, portrayed by
military historian Phil Sauerlender..
The
Boalsburg Columbus Ball at the Boal Mansion will feature line dancing
to Bruce Young and his group, fine food and champagne. The Ball is
open to the public.
Photo above: Guests at the Boalsburg Columbus Ball enjoy
contra-dancing maneuvers under the watchful tutelage of Bruce Young
and his band.
Below left:
Pioneer David Boal in 1789 portrayed by his descendant, Pittsburgh
broadcaster Alan Boal.
Below right: Christopher Columbus speaks! (Portrayed by Bruce
Young, musician, in the Boal Mansion ballroom).
Most Ball guests will be wearing the fashions of today, whether formal
or business, while some will attend in Civil War or turn-of-the-century
dress. A photographer will take portrait pictures of
guests in 1798 parlor and the event will feature first-person speaking
appearances by historical figures including Christopher Columbus (1492)
and the pioneer David Boal (1789).
Everyone in the community is invited to this unique blend of people,
place and event. Single persons also are encouraged to attend, says
museum CEO Christopher Lee, himself a single parent. In addition to champagne and fine hors
d'oeuvres from area restaurants, there will be contra-dancing under
the instruction of Bruce Young and his band, Smash the Windows.
Tickets are $75 each and benefit
historic preservation. For
further information and a full calendar of Boalsburg activities access
http://boalmuseum.com/
Just what are people celebrating
about Boalsburg's history on this festive weekend?
Today visitors to
Boalsburg are surprised to find tangible links not only with the
world-famous explorer Christopher Columbus, but also the Emperor
Napoleon Bonaparte, Civil War General Robert E. Lee and a signer of
the Declaration of Independence, Richard Henry Lee, as well as two
pieces of the True Cross on which Jesus died.
As America’s
strongest link with Columbus, the Columbus Chapel brings international
recognition to central Pennsylvania. Its story has been broadcast
throughout England by BBC-TV, throughout America by PBS-TV, last year
to one million viewers throughout Europe by Belgian National Public TV
and most recently throughout Pennsylvania in a thirty-minute special
by the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
How the Columbus
Chapel came to Boalsburg is a fascinating part of the larger story of
America, the emerging nation, as seen through one family, the Boals of
Boalsburg.
Colonel Theodore
Davis Boal was from a Scottish-Irish Presbyterian family that was one
of the first to settle in what is now Centre County, Pennsylvania.
The 200-year-old village of Boalsburg is named after his
great-grandfather, David Boal, who opened a frontier tavern in 1804 at
the frontier crossroads that later became the village.
Colonel Boal’s
grandfather, George, in the 1850s was one of the founders of the
nearby Farmers High School, today known as Penn State University with
43,000 students and a famous football team.
After 1900, the
marriage of a growing Penn State and the new automobile again changed
Boalsburg from the home of farmers and laborers, to a bedroom
community for college employees.
But Colonel Boal
was a different generation from his ancestors – one that admired the
elegance of old Europe. He studied architecture at the Beaux Arts in
Paris in the 1890s, where he met and married a beautiful
French-Spanish heiress, Mathilde de Lagarde, becoming a Roman Catholic
to do so.
On her French
father’s side, Mathilde was descended from Josephine, the wife of the
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The Boal Mansion Museum has on display a
lock of Emperor Napoleon’s hair given the family at his death in 1821.
On her Spanish
mother’s side, Mathilde’s aunt Victoria Montalvo married Diego
Columbus, a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus, who lived in
the 1,000-year-old Columbus Castle in the mountains in Asturias in
northern Spain.
A large portrait
of Victoria by the court painter in Spain now hangs in the ballroom of
the Boal Mansion along with the 1843 coronation portrait of the
Spanish queen Isabella II, whom Victoria served as lady-in-waiting.
A photograph in
the ballroom taken in Spain in 1905 shows an elderly Victoria Columbus
receiving her niece Mathilde, Mathilde’s husband Theodore Davis Boal
and their ten-year-old son Pierre. Another large photo shows Spanish
villagers in front of the Columbus Castle dancing to greet the Boals.
When Victoria
died in 1908, the chapel from that castle went to her niece Mathilde,
including an Admiral’s Desk that belonged to Christopher Columbus
himself, two pieces of the True Cross on which Jesus died and many
beautiful oil paintings and centuries-old European statues (see
related story) from centuries ago.
Theodore Davis
Boal shipped the chapel from Spain in 1909 as the crowning touch for
his American estate. Boal constructed a stone building to house the
Spanish interior which today is known as the Columbus Chapel in
Boalsburg, America’s only tangible link with its founder, Christopher
Columbus.
The Boal Mansion
and the Columbus Chapel are the centerpieces of the Boalsburg that is
known today as the heritage center of central Pennsylvania, reminding
us daily of our important place in American history.
Those interested
in participating can find details on the Boal Mansion web site at
http://boalmuseum.com.
To reserve Ball tickets, contact the Boal
Mansion Museum at (814) 466-6210, PO Box 116 Boalsburg PA 16827 or
email office@boalmuseum.com