History of Centre County Library & Historical Museum

The first public library in Centre County was the direct result of a bequest from Ann Elmira Humes, in her will of 1935. She left her house (the historic Miles-Potter-Humes home, built 1814-1815) at 203 North Allegheny Street in Bellefonte to be used as a library, as long as the community would rally with financial support within a reasonable period of time.

The town, led by the Bellefonte Woman’s Club, did rally, and in 1938 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Centre County agreed to help to provide funding.  On October 25, 1939, the Library & Historical Corporation of Bellefonte opened in the big stone building at the northwest corner of Allegheny and Howard Streets, with a collection of 10,000 volumes.  In 1956, the name was changed to Centre County Library & Historical Museum (CCLHM).

In 1977, CCLHM renovated the former A&P Supermarket building on the northeast corner of Allegheny and Howard Streets with the intention to expand, and transferred the main circulating collection of the Library to that site on October 23, 1977. The original Library building, the Miles-Potter-Humes home, now houses the Pennsylvania Room , five museum exhibition rooms, and administrative offices.

The first county Bookmobile took to the roads on December 24, 1941. The most recent Bookmobile is the sixth. It made roughly 19 weekly stops across the County, focusing on those areas which lack public transportation and nearby branch libraries until Fall of 2023. The Centre County Library and Historical Museum's Board of Trustees is currently exploring options for replacement of the Bookmobile. Until funding is secured and a new bookmobile purchased, we can no longer safely continue community based neighborhood stops.  

The Philipsburg Public Library (later renamed Holt Memorial Library) became part of the CCLHM system in 1963, followed by the Aaronsburg branch library in 1968.  In 2010, the Aaronsburg collection was moved to Millheim to become the East Penns Valley Area Branch library.  Unfortunately, in 2013, the branch was closed due to state funding cuts.

The Centre Hall Area Branch library, the most recent addition to the CCLHM system, opened in 1997.