{"nrhp_refnum":"78002361","name":"Boal Mansion","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"U.S. 322 and PA 45","address_restricted":false,"city":"Boalsburg","county":"Centre County","state":"PA","lat":40.77895499400006,"lon":-77.80008834947492,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-12-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic house museum in Boalsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, built in stages from about 1789 through the early 20th century, with a chapel, carriage house, barn, smokehouse and outdoor fireplaces on the property.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the mansion is significant for its architecture, especially the sequence of period additions that keep the character of earlier sections, and for its long association with Pennsylvania military history. It also cites the chapel said to have belonged to Christopher Columbus and his descendants, which came to the Boal family in the nineteenth century.","narrative":"Boalsburg's Boal Mansion grew in three main stages: a stone kitchen house dating to about 1789, a two-story Georgian section of 1798 built by David Boal, Jr., and extensive additions of 1898 to 1905 by Theodore Davis Boal, who had studied architecture in Paris. The 1798 house has a side-hall plan, a splendid staircase in its front hall, and fireplaces with stone hearths and paneled, Doric-columned mantles. Theodore Boal's work added a classical in-antis portico and a formal eastern garden, while keeping the earlier three-bay facade intact. The nomination regards the sequence of additions as a rare example of successive generations preserving the woodwork and character of earlier sections. The mansion is also tied to military history: David Boal the elder served as a captain in a Cumberland County militia company during the Revolution, and Theodore Boal organized the Boalsburg Machine Gun Troop in 1916, which later served under General Pershing on the Mexican Border.","period_of_significance":"1789-1905","architect_builder":"D. Boal, D. Boal, Jr.; T.D. Boal","architectural_style":"Georgian; Beaux Arts classicism","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Operated as an historic house museum by the Boal family; the barn is currently used by a summer theatre group and the carriage house is used as apartments.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:28.933338-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/78002361.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002361/f9d68cf4ee-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78002361/f9d68cf4ee-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Ruhrfisch","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boal_Mansion_1.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruhrfisch</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boal_Mansion_1.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71994716","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boal_Mansion","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4931240"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/centre-county/boal-mansion-78002361/"}