Boalsburg, PA
Starts: Friday, May 23, 2025 at 12:00 AM
Ends: Monday, May 26, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Located just off Route 322 in Centre County, Pennsylvania, is a tiny old-fashioned American village called Boalsburg. Perhaps to some people this little town is just another dot on the map, but the locals know a truer meaning behind Boalsburg. “Boalsburg. An American Village – Birthplace of Memorial Day.”
It all began with a lovely young teen-age girl named Emma Hunter and her friend Sophie Keller on a pleasant Sunday in October, 1864. The girls gathered some garden flowers to place them on the grave of her father, Dr. Reuben Hunter, a surgeon in the Union Army. That very same day an older woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer, chose to scatter flowers on the grave of her son Amos, who was a private in the Battle at Gettysburg. The two spoke of their loved ones and respectfully placed flowers on both graves. These women did not realize what they had in common, but as it happened they were participating in their first Memorial Day service.
On that very Sunday in October, 1864 these women made a pact to meet again on the same day the following year to honor their loved ones as well as others who may have no one left to kneel at their graves. In the next months these women shared their plan with friends and neighbors. The result was a meeting on July 4, 1865, which had turned into a community service. All of Boalsburg gathered, along with a clergyman – Dr. George Hall – who preached a sermon. Not one grave went left undecorated.
This day of remembering easily became a tradition held annually in Boalsburg, and slowly the neighboring communities began observing “Decoration Day” each spring. On May 5, 1868, only four years after that first meeting in the burial ground, General John A. Logan, then commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order. He named May 30, 1868 as a day “for the purpose of comrades who died in defense of their country” the order was signed and was kept from year to year.
Thursday, May 22
6:00 to 10:00: Boalsburg Fireman’s Carnival
>> Wrist Band Night, $25 Unlimited Rides from 6 – 10
2:00 – Drop in Tour @ The Columbus Chapel & Boal Mansion Museum ($15/person)
Friday, May 23
6:00 to 10:00: Boalsburg Fireman’s Carnival
Saturday, May 24
10:00 to 4:00 – Battle Cry of Freedom: A Civil War Experience – PA Military Museum
>> 10:00 to 4:00 – Outdoor Living History Displays
>> 10:00 to 4:00 – Museum Info & Merch Tent
>> 11:00 – History Mystery Kid's Program
>>1:00 – Historic Weapons Demonstration
7:00 – Civil War Remembered: Boalsburg Cemetery Lantern Tour (by Local Historia)
>> Benefiting the PA Military Museum
Sunday:
10:00 to 4:00 – Battle Cry of Freedom: A Civil War Experience – PA Military Museum
>> 10:00 to 4:00 – Outdoor Living History Displays
>> 10:00 to 4:00 – Museum Info & Merch Tent
>> 11:00 – History Mystery Kid's Program
>> 1:00 – Historic Weapons Demonstration
Monday, May 26, Memorial Day
A Day in Town
7:15 to 8:15 – Registration for Memorial Day Run, Blue Spring Park
8:00 – Start Delivering Pies for Pie Contest
8:30 – Memorial Day Run
9:00 to 3:00 – St. John’s Church
>> Children’s Carnival & Bounce House on the side lawn.
>> Soup Sale (Inside)
>> Pie Sale (Outside)
10:00 to 4:00 – Zion Lutheran Church
>> Outside on Lawn
>> T-shirts for Sale, Bottled Water, & Chairs for Resting
>> Inside the Church
>> Dried Soup Mix Jars for Sale, Changing & Nursing Room
>> Ten Thousand Village Shop
10:15 – Zion Lutheran Church, Pastor Book will preach a Colonial Service
9:00 to 4:00 – Over 120 Vendors on Church & Main Streets
10:00 to 4:00 – Boalsburg Fireman’s Carnival
10:30 to 4:30 – Memorial Day Stage Entertainment
>> 10:30 to 11:30 – SCAHS Jazz Band
>> 12:00 to 1:00 – Little German Band
>> 12:30 – Maypole Dance, Central PA Dance Workshop
>> 1:30 to 2:30 – Screaming Ducks
>> 3:00 to 4:00 – JR Mangan Band with Veronica
11:00 – Judging of the Pie Contest
5:45 – Walk to the Cemetery
6:00 – Cemetery Ceremony (Emceed by Jeff Brown)
The Columbus Chapel & Boal Mansion Museum
(Grounds Open 10- 5)
PARKING -- $10
Special Museum Tours -- $5 per tour & $5 per Person
Columbus Chapel Tours – 10, 11, 12, 1 & 2
Boal Museum Armory Tours – 10:30, 11:30, 12:30 1:30 & 2:30
All Day Events
History Reenactors
Dr. Ralph Aitkin, 19th Century Embalmer
Mr. Tom Melville, 19th Century Pick-Up Cricket Games
Horse Drawn Carriage Rides -- $5 per Carriage Ride by Misty Lane Farms Horses
Basket Raffle at the Visitor Center, Face Painting for Kids
Food, Drink and Craft Vendors & Artisans
Live Music
10:30 – Bellefonte Municipal Band
11:30 – JT Blues
Pennsylvania Military Museum
9:00 to 5:00 – AACA Car Show
9:00 to 5:00 – Museum Info & Merch Tent
>> Museum Closed for Renovations (Grounds Open)
Heritage Museum
MEMORIAL DAY AT the BOALSBURG HERITAGE MUSEUM
304 East Main Street, Boalsburg
HOUSE MUSEUM – Visitors welcome from 10:00AM to 4:00PM.
Refreshments by Sweet Temptations – starting @ 9:00
10:00 a.m. to 3:00 Museum opening with exhibits in the 200 year old Sarah Sweet Myers house featuring new Civil War exhibits, an IOOF Hall exhibit and other new historical displays.
10:30 – Local Historian & Author Cathy Horner will speak “Celebrating Our Heritage: A House. A Tavern and a Tradition.”
11:30 to 2:30 Boalsburg’s own Free Range Band will entertain
12:00 to 2:00 – Boalsburg Local Free-Range Band on the Porch
SUMMER KITCHEN – Will be open for light refreshments. Stop in and see the historic Open-Hearth fireplace.
UPPER BANK BARN – Stan Smith will be in the Barn for tours of antique carriages, wagons and farm equipment
LIGHT HOUSE – See where and how electricity was first generated and enjoy an exhibit of early Boalsburg baseball teams.
You are welcome to sit and relax in our beautiful garden throughout the day.
Blacksmith Shop (224 East Main Street)
10:00 to 4:00 – Live Blacksmithing Demonstrations
>> Featuring Blacksmiths John Wood & Eric Johnson
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