Historic Boalsburg
Celebrates the Unexpected in October
Boalsburg is
planning a festive three days around October 10 this fall, not only to
celebrate its 201st birthday as the quintessential American
village, but also to recognize an entirely other and unexpected
Boalsburg where centuries-old European religious art and the most
famous explorer in the world can be found.
Photo:
Persons from Boalsburg's and America's past and present will speak at
the street party and/or the evening ball, including, right to left, the pioneer David Boal
(portrayed by his descendant, Pittsburgh broadcaster Alan Boal),
Christopher Columbus (Bruce Young) and eighth generation Boal family
member Christopher Lee.
In the first half
of the 19th century, Boalsburg was a vibrant home of
taverns serving pioneers travelling west and artisans serving the
needs of the iron industry of central Pennsylvania, the nation’s top
iron producing region at the time.
But by the
mid-nineteenth century, the iron industry had changed and moved away,
the railroad had bypassed Boalsburg, and the village began evolving
into a “quaint and quiet” home for farmers and transient laborers.
Photo below: Youngsters cut out paper dolls of
their heritage from the Boalsburg-Panorama Elementary Schools PTA
while the Collins Family plays Irish music in the background at the
festival.
But there is
another Boalsburg that today stuns and dazzles new visitors and
unaware residents alike – the remarkable and diverse European and
American heritage on display at the Columbus Chapel and the Boal
Mansion Museum just west of the village.
Christopher
Columbus arrived in America on October 12, 1492. As 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.
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 and last
year to one million viewers throughout Europe by Belgian National
Public TV.
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, 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.
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
boalmuseum.com or by contacting the Museum at 814-466-6210 or
office@boalmuseum.com.
Performance
Schedule for October 10, 2009, in the Boalsburg Village Square:
Noon to 4 pm: Free
wagon rides with a guide explaining the history -- throughout
Boalsburg village and down to the Columbus Chapel and Boal Mansion
Museum
Noon to 4 pm:
Historical persons
will wander in and out of the the festival throughout the afternoon,
including Christopher Columbus and Colonel Theodore Davis Boal.
Crafts and children's activities, including:
-
Hot
Wheels miniature car races for children
-
Josephine Aiello, face painting
-
Jeanne Lengyel, jewelry
-
Gloria Brashers, "Gifts To Go"
featuring Celebrating Home
-
Jen Yoder, Kitchen tools and
products
-
Brandi Wagner, Tastefully Simple
food products,
Entertainment schedule:
12:00-12:30:
Tir na Nog School of Irish Dancing, Sue Garner
Music between 1:00 and
4:00 pm, performers playing off and on:
-
Bruce Young,
fiddle, guitar, banjo and dulcimer: traditional American music from
the 19th century, including sing-alongs
-
Jim Kerhin, Banjo: all-American music
-
Chris Lee, guitar: pop and rock
-
Bill Brashers,
singer/songwriter: original music
2:00: Boalsburg 201st Birthday cake
from Tracy Coleman of For Heaven Cakes of Boalsburg.
Pageant of historical characters from Boalsburg's 201 year history.
Historical characters appearing throughout the
afternoon festival and/or at the Boalsburg Columbus Ball at the Boal Mansion in the
evening of October 10):
Admiral Christopher Columbus (d. 1506)
in 2009 – Bruce Young
The pioneer David Boal in 1789 – Alan
Boal
David Boal II (1764-1837) in 1809 –
John Wainright
Hon. George Boal (1796 –1867) in 1855 –
Rev. Joseph Martin
Moses Thompson (1810-1891) in 1855 –
Tom Daubert
Mrs. Elizabeth Myers, First Memorial
Day in 1864 -- Meredith Snook/Lisa Bock
Malvina Buttles Boal, (1840-1927), c.
1875 -- Amy Haase
Mathilde de L. Boal (1871 – 1952) in
1905 – Carol McAdams
Theodore Davis Boal (1867 – 1938) in
1916 – Phil Sauerlender
Ruth Corter in 1976 - Gladys Hart
Christopher Lee in the year 2039 – Christopher
Lee
A Toast to Two Centuries of Community –
Christopher Lee