ABCs of Centre County

Aaronsburg (Haines) – Philadelphia land speculator Aaron Levy laid out the village of Aaronsburg in 1786. Aaronsburg, was the earliest town in what would become Centre County. Laid out along the county's earliest road, Aaronsburg's location near the geographic center of Pennsylvania probably prompted Levy to propose it for the state capital. He laid it out in a grid pattern of alternating streets and alleys with a wide central street, broadening into Aaron Square in its center, to allow room for public buildings. Surrounded by fertile farmland, Aaronsburg developed into a bustling commercial post village. Broadsides circulated by Levy noted that some lots would remain open for churches of all denominations. Levy's early advocacy for religious freedom became the basis of The Aaronsburg Story. Thirty thousand people attended this pageant in 1949.

Agricultural College (State College) – "The college building is built of limestone, seated on a piece of rising ground. It is beautifully located, and from the cupola one of grandest landscape scenes is presented to view that the imagination of man can picture". (John Blair Linn, 1883)

Antes (Rush) – Located on the Bellefonte-Philipsburg portion of the Philadelphia to Erie Turnpike, or more commonly known as the Rattlesnake Pike, Antes is associated with the lumbering communities of Beaver Mills, Star Mill, and Underwood Mills. A busy tollgate tavern, the Black Bear, was located about five miles north of Antes. The Black Bear served passenger stage coaches and freight wagons carrying iron east and supplies west.

Axemann/Boiling Springs (Spring) – In 1829 Harvey Mann began an axe-making operation along Logan Branch at Boiling Springs. Iron furnaces and forges were within a mile of his factory, and Logan Branch supplied the water needed for trip hammers. In its heyday, the plant at Axemann made single and double billed axes and employed 50 men, turning out 350 axes a day.