BELLEFONTE — Belle Mercantile grew out of a simple belief: people in Bellefonte shouldn’t have to leave town to find something thoughtful, useful or unique. What began as a small marketplace has evolved into a vibrant collective where handmade goods, practical gifts and local creativity all live under one roof. And for owner Andrea Skirpan, that’s exactly the point. To create a place that feels local and loved.
Belle Mercantile didn’t begin as a lifelong dream. In fact, its origin story swerves in a direction no one, including Skirpan, expected. She was a research scientist — PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology — working as a postdoc at Penn State. Her husband Brian was working as a civil engineer. Then came kids and a moment that changed everything.
“I had daycare lined up, I was ready to go back part time,” Skirpan said. “I dropped my son off, sat in the car and thought, ‘No, I’m not going back.’ And that was it.”
She spent the next decade raising her children, refinishing furniture to help pay for preschool and swim lessons. When she tried to sell those pieces, the idea of strangers stopping by the house pushed her into the idea of a store front with antique malls in mind. But none of them matched her style. She wanted something more modern, more curated, more alive.
Around 2017, she noticed a new wave of vendor marketplaces popping up nationally. So she started researching. Bellefonte needed something like that, she thought. A store that blended old-school antique mall structure with a modern sense of taste, design and usefulness.
“We call it a collective marketplace,” she said. “We have vendors, but we also carry items people need. Gifts, toys, locally sourced products. We wanted a place where you didn’t have to leave Bellefonte just to buy a birthday present.”
When the couple bought the building, they expected to fill it almost entirely with vendor booths. But the community shaped the model instead. Belle Mercantile now operates as roughly 75 percent vendor space and 25 percent curated inventory that Skirpan brings in to meet demand. You’ll see Pennsylvania-made items mixed with handmade jewelry, scarves, stained glass, children’s toys, copper pieces, cast iron, crocheted hats, vinyl records and outdoor goods designed in Montana with others made in Nepal from recycled materials.
With over 70 vendors on display and routinely changing inventory, no shelf looks the same twice.
“I’ll walk in and say, ‘Oh, that scarf wasn’t here yesterday,’” she laughed. “It keeps the store interesting.”
Bellefonte itself plays a huge role in the business. Many of her vendors are neighbors. It’s a downtown area made up of people who live where they work and work where they live.
“We’re invested,” Skirpan said. “We bought the building, we run the store, we’re here for the long haul. And I want people in Bellefonte to be able to get what they need without driving to State College.”
That local spirit shows up everywhere, including in “Davidsville” and the model train that circles it. What started as two local neighbors’ hobby during Belle Mercantile’s early months has grown into a full seasonal attraction, complete with its own room where a model train makes its rounds through a model sized version of downtown Bellefonte. Kids search for it year-round, adults linger and Skirpan says it brings back the feeling of department-store magic she grew up with.
Looking ahead, Skirpan hopes to bring back the social side of the business with events such as sip-and-shops and other community gathering ideas. It’s the energy customers ask for and one she wants to revive.
Through it all, the mission stays simple: keep Bellefonte vibrant. Skirpan is active in the Chamber of Commerce, encourages visitors to explore other shops and reminds customers that shopping small means shopping community.
“We’re here because we love this town,” she said. “And we want people to love being here too. We’re here in Bellefonte because we’re supporting all of Bellefonte and I try to tell people to go to all the other businesses.”
Belle Mercantile will also be participating in Bellefonte’s Shop Small Crawl on Nov. 29 beginning at 10 a.m. Shoppers can expect participating businesses to offer surprises throughout the day. Monarch Salon will also be giving away tote bags designed by local artist Natalie Burkey to the first 150 attendees.
“Shop small and shop local. I’m all about promoting Bellefonte and all of Happy Valley,”
Belle Mercantile is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 to 5 and Sundays from 11 to 4. The holiday train runs Friday through Sunday through December.
