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Deep Roots: Local congregation honors man who helped preserve historic, familial church

By SARAH BUTTIKOFER 7 min read

BELLEFONTE -- Forty years after helping save a historic Centre County church from demolition, John Fyfe returned to the place his family has been connected to for generations.

Fyfe, who turned 90 in July and now lives in London, England, was honored last Sunday during a concert at the Advent Church on Moose Run Road, the historic building he helped preserve in the 1980s.

The free concert, featuring The Little German Band from State College, began at 2 p.m. and was followed by an apple cider and doughnut reception.

For Fyfe's daughter, Katie, the trip was about more than attending a concert. It is a return to a place that has been woven into her father's life since childhood, and one that she remembers visiting with him when she was young.

"It's a pilgrimage, really, for him," Katie said.

Fyfe grew up in New York but spent summers in Centre County visiting relatives and family farms near Moose Run. His family's connection to the church stretches back to the people who established it in 1849.

Jeffrey Watson, Fyfe's cousin, said Fyfe was traveling through Centre County in the mid-1980s when he learned the church was about to be demolished for scrap.

"He was flying from London to Hong Kong," Watson said. "He did that a lot for his business."

Fyfe stopped in the area to visit relatives before continuing on to Hong Kong. While there, he learned the church was scheduled to be torn down.

"He just heard that this was going to happen," Watson said. "It was kind of a happenstance and a very lucky convergence."

Fyfe had the resources and experience to help the family and other local supporters take action. The effort eventually led to the formation of the Advent Historical Society, which was established in 1985 to save the building.

The group spent the next several years restoring the church to its original 1849 condition.

Watson said the building's American chestnut construction was one reason its preservation was particularly significant. The American chestnut tree was devastated by blight in the early 20th century, making the wood used in the church increasingly rare.

By the time preservation efforts began, the congregation had long since moved to a new church in Milesburg, leaving the old building vacant.

Today, the Advent Church no longer operates as a congregation but remains a historic site used for events including weddings, funerals and concerts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For Fyfe, the connection to the building is also deeply personal.

His ancestors were among the families who established the church, and his grandparents were among its last longtime members. Family members are buried in the cemetery behind the church.

Katie said her father has remained connected to Centre County despite living in London for decades.

"He never stopped coming back here," Watson said.

As a child, Fyfe traveled by train from New York City to Lewistown before relatives picked him up and brought him to Centre County for the summer.

Katie remembers making two trips to the area with her father, in 1984 and 1986. They stayed with relatives Al and Jane Franco, who lived near the church, visited family and made trips around the area.

She particularly remembers going for ice cream and visiting a butcher in Milesburg for Pennsylvania sausage and scrapple.

Those memories came back as she and her father returned to the area last week.

"When we were driving up, all of that was still in my core memory just as much as Dad's," Katie said.

The pair also visited the cemetery where several family members are buried, including Katie's grandparents.

"It's just a very special place and somewhere that has a deep root in my family," Katie said.

The timing of the trip is particularly meaningful to Katie because her father now has memory loss and she is his primary caregiver in London.

"I wanted to reconnect while he still has his memory enough for us to kind of enjoy it together," Katie said.

The concert was organized in part to recognize Fyfe's role in preserving the church and to celebrate his 90th birthday. The choice of The Little German Band also reflects his family history.

Fyfe's grandmother was part of the German side of the family, Katie said.

The Little German Band, organized in 1960, is Centre County's oldest continuously performing community band. The group performs German-style "Oompah" music and has played more than 40 concerts a year in addition to touring throughout Pennsylvania and other states.

Watson said the concert is a way for the family to recognize both Fyfe's work on the church and his longstanding connection to the area.

"He's invested money, he invested time, he invested his expertise in a lot of ways to make that happen," Watson said. "But more than that, it's a way of honoring the blood connection, the fact that he's an important part of our family and our history, and we all feel that."

That connection to family history is also central to another project Katie and her father have built together in London.

In 2021, Katie moved her father into the flat next to hers after realizing he was beginning to struggle with his memory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she began documenting his life with Dolly, one of her dogs.

Dolly and Fyfe quickly developed a close relationship.

Katie began posting photographs and videos of the pair on Instagram, where their account, Dad & Dolly, eventually grew to more than 110,000 followers.

The account later became the inspiration for a clothing label of the same name. Katie said followers began commenting on Fyfe's clothing, prompting her to take a closer look at his decades-old wardrobe and the stories behind it.

One of the pieces that particularly stood out was an old T-shirt from Fyfe's time at West Point.

"He'd had it for nearly 70 years," Katie said.

The pair launched Dad & Dolly last November, and the first collection sold out in five days. The project was later featured in the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph.

Katie said the clothing business is intentionally small and centered around spending time with her father rather than becoming another source of pressure.

"It needs to be something that we do that's fun, not something that becomes a burden," Katie said.

The company donates $2.64 from every T-shirt and $1.32 from every pair of socks sold to Alzheimer's Research.

For Katie, the clothing project and her father's return to Centre County share a common thread: preserving memories, traditions and connections between generations.

She said she hopes to eventually create a baseball cap based on one of her father's old West Point caps, with places that carry meaning for their family incorporated into the design.

One of those places could be Moose Run.

As Fyfe returned to the Advent Church last weekend, the trip brought together several parts of his life: his childhood in Centre County, his family's history, his work helping preserve the church and the memories he has built with his daughter.

For Katie, being able to make the trip with her father while he can still recognize and enjoy those places makes the journey particularly meaningful.

"Your roots and where you've come from and the values are really important to him and family in particular," Katie said.

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