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Sunday, May 26, 2002

By Shelby Miller Ruch

BOALSBURG, Pa. -- Memorial Day is the perfect time to remember -- or discover -- this picturesque Centre County community with several claims to patriotic fame.

Boalsburg bills itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day and commissioned a life-sized bronze sculpture to commemorate the event.

The title is disputed by two dozen communities around the country, but not in question are the town's major attractions, the Pennsylvania Military Museum and Columbus Chapel at Boal Mansion -- America's link to Christopher Columbus.

The village center and nearby Boal Mansion are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

	If you go ... Columbus Chapel and Boal Mansion Museum WHERE: U.S. Business Route 322, Boalsburg, Centre County. HOURS: 1:30-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays from May 1 to mid-June and the day after Labor Day to Oct. 31; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays from mid-June to Labor Day; open to groups anytime by advance arrangement. ADMISSION: $10; $6, ages 7-11. CALL: 814-466-6210 or www.boalmuseum.com. Pennsylvania Military Museum WHERE: US Business Route 322, Boalsburg, Centre County. HOURS: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays, from May to October; closed Jan. 1, Thanksgiving, day after Thanksgiving and Dec. 25 and closed Mondays except Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day; hours may vary November to March; phone ahead. ADMISSION: $3.50; over age 59 $3; ages 6-12 $1.50; family rate $8.50. INFORMATION: 814-466-6263 or www.psu.edu/dept/ aerospace/museum/. -- Shelby Miller Ruch

Celebrations are planned at several sites clustered near the intersection of Business Route 322 and State Route 45 a few miles east of State College. A Memorial Day festival tomorrow will include a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Boal Mansion Museum.

Boalsburg's compact Main Street, lined with little shops and Victorian houses, offers a respite from the hectic highway. After wandering through town on a recent visit, I had stopped for pumpkin soup beside a fireplace at Duffy's Tavern, opened in 1819 to serve stagecoach passengers. Then I wanted to hear the story behind that sign I spotted down the road. It reads, "Boalsburg. An American Village -- Birthplace of Memorial Day." Although Congress officially recognized Waterloo, N.Y., as titleholder in this category, Boalsburg has its supporters.

The way Boalsburgers tell it, three local women started it all by placing flowers on the graves of fallen Civil War soldiers in the town cemetery in October 1864. Today, a lifelike bronze statue of the trio by sculptor Lorann Garrety-Jacobs stands in the cemetery just off Route 322.

The women were Emma Hunter, Sophie Keller and Elizabeth Myers, who laid flowers on the graves of Emma's father, Dr. Reuben Hunter, who died while attending wounded soldiers, and Elizabeth's son, Amos, killed at Gettysburg. According to tradition, they agreed to meet the following year to decorate graves; on July 4, 1865, most of the community joined them in what became known as Decoration Day, the forerunner of the national Memorial Day observance.

Pennsylvania Military Museum

Across the highway, I explored the 66-acre Pennsylvania Military Museum park, containing cannons, equipment and monuments, and inspected the 28th Division Shrine, dedicated to war dead of America's oldest Army unit.

The large stone edifice is set in a hillside near the museum; names of those who died in battle are carved in the walls. The park is a popular place for walkers and joggers, too. The field will fill with artisans' tents from July 11 to 14 for the annual People's Choice Festival of Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts.

Appropriately, Route 45 bordering the park is called the Purple Heart Highway in honor of all recipients of the medal. Established by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War, the Military Order of the Purple Heart is conferred on those wounded or killed in combat.

You can follow the story of the commonwealth's citizen soldiers, from Benjamin Franklin's first military unit to the Desert Storm years, through exhibits inside the museum. Established here in 1968, the building is undergoing renovation, so be prepared for possible detours.

Franklin laid the groundwork for today's Pennsylvania National Guard when he organized 20 "associator" regiments on Nov. 21, 1747. Many Pennsylvanians were not happy about it. As a guide explained, "Most American colonies required all free males between certain ages to serve in a militia. The one exception was Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania, where military service was voluntary."

"Pennsylvania, with its pacific Quaker origins, has developed one of the strongest military traditions. During the 19th century, there was a radical change in the perceived need to defend Pennsylvania against French, Spanish, Indians and ultimately the British. Out of this necessary change in attitude has come the belief that it is an obligation of citizenship to defend our homes, country and way of life."

The prolific Franklin created insignia for each of the associator battalions. The associators had a sporadic existence and didn't take part in any important colonial period battles on Pennsylvania soil where defense was left largely to the British army. A year after the commonwealth constitution was adopted in 1776, Pennsylvania organized its first militia, volunteer companies that were ancestors of the state police and national guard.

Moving ahead in time, you can experience battlefield conditions by walking through a full-scale replica of a darkened World War I battlefield trench, complete with the sights and sounds of combat: rocket fire, gunshots, soldiers' shouts and a mud-spattered ambulance standing ready to transport the wounded.

Elsewhere in the two-story museum are a scale model of the 28th Infantry Division marching in the liberation parade in Paris on Aug. 29, 1944, weapons, uniforms and war memorabilia, providing a running history of the commonwealth's military.

Columbus Chapel and Boal Mansion Museum

Boalsburg boasts one of the most important Columbus artifacts in North America, thanks to the Boal connection with the Spanish Colon (anglicized to Columbus) clan. The centerpiece of the collection is the Columbus Chapel on the grounds of the 213-year-old Boal estate.

Originally part of the Columbus Castle in Asturias, Spain, the chapel was inherited by Mathilde de Lagarde Boal, wife of Col. Theodore Boal, from her aunt, Victoria Colon, in 1908. The Boals had the chapel shipped here in 1909 and built a limestone structure to house it.

Today, school students from across the state and tourists from around the world visit the chapel. When BBC producers filmed a program here that was broadcast throughout the United Kingdom, they called the chapel "a glorious example of Old Europe in America." Last May, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a resolution naming the Columbus Chapel and Boal Mansion Museum "a treasure and a valued historical marker in this Commonwealth."

Inside the chapel, visitors can see Columbus' desk, 15th-century religious statues, Renaissance paintings, 150,000 pages of Columbus documents dating to the 1450s and two pieces of wood said to be from the "true cross," given to the Columbus family in 1817 by the Bishop of Leon in Spain.

The mansion collection contains original furnishings, papers, portraits, tools and weapons chronicling the occupants' history. David Boal, a Scots-Irish Revolutionary War captain, was looking for cheap land and freedom when he settled here in 1789. His son, David, established Boalsburg village and opened a tavern. David's son, George, chose farming over inn keeping and, in 1855, helped found nearby Farmers High School, forerunner of Pennsylvania State University.

Theodore Davis Boal benefited from industrial fortunes amassed by his forebears and studied architecture in Europe. There he married the beautiful French-Spanish aristocrat, Mathilde de Lagarde, a descendant of Christopher Columbus. Boal also organized his own troop during World War I and established the 28th Division Shrine that's now part of the state military museum.

Theodore's son, U.S. Ambassador Pierre de Lagarde Boal, returned 50 years ago to decide what to do with the ancestral home. After his father died in 1938, leaving no money to support their upkeep, the condition of the buildings and grounds had declined. He debated selling the historic property with its furnishings, artwork, weapons and tools dating to the Revolutionary War, along with its Columbus collection, or try ing to save them. Boal chose to preserve the site and open it for public tours.

Christopher Lee and his children are the latest Boal descendants to live on the site. He enthusiastically welcomes visitors during this year's golden anniversary celebration of the estate's public life.

He will open his doors tomorrow to a procession from the village during Boalsburg's Memorial Day Festival. "At 11:45 a.m., there will be a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of the founding of the museum in 1952 by Ambassador Pierre Boal. Attending will be his daughter, Mimi Boal Lee, wife of the late governor of Maryland, Blair Lee III."

To continue celebrating, and rub elbows with descendants of American notables, there are more opportunities this year at the mansion. As Lee describes them:

"A 50th Anniversary Garden Party with refreshments, music and gardening information on July 6 will honor Pierre Boal and another Boal ancestor, Richard Henry Lee, who signed and proposed the Declaration of Independence.

"Boalsburg Century Ball will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 12, with contradancing in the 1898 mansion ballroom, champagne and fine food in the 1798 dining room and visits from Christopher Columbus and eight generations of Boals who shaped the community.

"Discovery Day, Oct. 13, will celebrate Boalsburg's unique link with Columbus.

"A Columbus Day religious service will be held in the Columbus Chapel Oct. 14, marking the anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492."

One way or another, Boalsburg's memorials are bound to make visitors reflect on what it means to be American.

Shelby Miller Ruch is a free-lance writer.