‘Tranquil’ Pleasant Gap Owns a Long and Interesting History

Around 1800, when Centre County was first formed, a road was directed to be opened from Centre Hall across the mountain to Bellefonte. In 1806, by order of the court, this road was re-laid from Bellefonte to Nittany Mountain at the mouth of the gap, and Pleasant Gap received its name.

Pleasant Gap was a stagecoach stop on a heavily traveled route from the Lewistown area to Bellefonte. The Bellefonte-Lewistown Turnpike, opening in 1825, followed the same path as today’s Harrison Road. It was rerouted slightly westward, following the path of what is present-day Route 144, and the town sprang up around the new road.

Pleasant Gap’s official founding date is listed as 1845, though the first settlement is thought to have been made around 1790, probably just south of the fish hatchery owned by a family named Connelly.

With the expansion of the iron industry in the area, Pleasant Gap began to grow slowly, and practically all the men had to leave home to find work.

A shoemaker, blacksmith, storekeeper or toll gate keeper could make a living in the village with the aid of his garden, poultry, pigs and cow, but these occupations were each limited to one man. Most of the other men worked at mine banks that furnished ore for Bellefonte’s iron furnaces. Some went to the furnace itself, or to the axe factory at Axemann, or engaged in lumbering in Greens Valley. Pay for these jobs was poor, and the men eked out meager livings.

Some local industry did exist in the late 1800s, including a gristmill, a whiskey distillery and a cigar factory run by German entrepreneur Gottlieb Haag and his adopted son John C. Mulfinger.

But, the real growth for Pleasant Gap began with the advent of the local lime industry in 1905. At the height of its success, the White Rock Quarry Corporation worked on both the east and west ends of the village, producing about 40 lime-related products and employing 250 people.

Eventually, the state fish hatchery north of town and Rockview prison to the west also employed many Pleasant Gap residents.

Eric Zimmerman grew up in Pleasant Gap, as did his father, the late Richard Zimmerman. The elder Zimmerman remembered a pond in the creek behind the American Legion building, which was the town swimming hole in the summer and, when frozen over in winter, became an ice skating and hockey rink. A second ice skating location was a large shallow pond at the fish hatchery, according to Eric Zimmerman. Both sites were eventually filled in.

Judy Waite grew up in Pleasant Gap in the 1950s at her family’s home on Spruce Street. She has fond memories of several establishments there.

Waite remembers getting ice cream at Burd’s, located at the “Y,” where Route 144 bears to the left and Harrison Road goes to the right. There was a dairy on Main Street near the present elementary school, and another one on College Avenue. Spicher’s Sunoco gas station and garage sat on the corner of Main Street and College Avenue, supplying the town’s vehicles with fuel and serving as a hangout for many of the town’s gentlemen.

A vintage photograph of the upper end of Pleasant Gap shows Burd’s store, a favorite stop for ice cream in its heyday. (Submitted photo)

Across the street from the gas station was a small grocery and general store, which had previously been a radio repair shop operated by Charles K. Stitzer, Waite’s grandfather. She also remembers hiking up to Big Rock, a large outcropping on the north face of the mountain which provided a spectacular view of Pleasant Gap.

Waite said the highlight of her summers was the fire company parade and carnival, held each year in late July. This fundraising event still exists today, and draws large crowds to the village.

The Pleasant Gap Fire Company was incorporated on April 14, 1914, with about 30 initial members. The first fire house was built along Horntown Road, now Harrison Road, around 1915, and that original building still stands as a private residence.

The company’s first firefighting apparatus was a fourwheeled hand hose cart purchased from the Undine Fire Company in Bellefonte. Men pulled the cart on foot to the fires. In the early years, citizens were alerted to fires by a steam whistle owned by the White Rock Quarry, now Graymont, using a Morse Code-like pattern of long and short blasts which indicated the location of the fires.

One of Pleasant Gap’s most well-known and respected citizens was James R. “Doc” Barlett, who served as a physician there for more than 50 years. Barlett was known for making house calls and caring for the town’s citizens at any time of day or night, often charging little or nothing for his services. Waite remembers him coming to her house to treat her for a strep throat infection when she was a child.

According to its residents, living in Pleasant Gap always has been a “pleasant” experience. It has always provided a tranquil, wholesome environment in which to live and raise a family, and it shows no signs of losing those qualities.

Editor’s note: Eric Zimmerman and Judy Waite are author Sam Stitzer’s cousins.