10 Most Breathtaking Towns In Pennsylvania
What makes a Pennsylvania town breathtaking is rarely the town on its own. It is usually one piece of scenery so striking that the people there built everything else around it. In Mill Run, a waterfall too good to leave alone became the foundation of a famous house. Near Wellsboro, a thousand-foot gorge deep enough to nickname a Grand Canyon is the thing residents point to first. At Kennett Square, a du Pont fortune went into a thousand acres of public gardens. In each of these ten towns, residents took a single natural or man-made wonder and made it the center of local life. These are the places where that one landmark is still the reason to come.
Bellefonte
Bellefonte wears its nineteenth century on its sleeve, a Centre County borough whose downtown of Victorian brick and stone is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Five Pennsylvania governors once lived here, which is how the town picked up the nickname the Fountain of Governors. The 1805 Centre County Courthouse still fronts the Diamond at the center of it all, and the surrounding streets would look familiar to anyone who walked them in the 1800s.
At the foot of downtown, Talleyrand Park runs along Spring Creek, a limestone-fed trout stream that stays cold and clear year-round. A restored 1889 rail station sits at the north end, and a suspension footbridge crosses to a peninsula between the creek and Big Spring. The Bellefonte Governors Memorial stands among the gardens, and the gazebo is the setting for concerts and seasonal displays through the year.
Mill Run
Fallingwater is the reason to come to Mill Run, a small community in the Laurel Highlands south of Smethport. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in the mid-1930s and cantilevered it directly over the Bear Run waterfall, so the water runs beneath the living room. Tours run through the interiors and terraces year-round and show how Wright tied the structure to the rock and stream around it.
The house sits inside the Bear Run Nature Reserve, more than 5,000 acres managed by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, with over 20 miles of trails across the hillsides. Hunting and fishing are allowed in season with a license. Mill Run also sits just outside Ohiopyle and Ohiopyle State Park, where the fall hiking explains why so many people put down roots in this corner of the highlands.
Wellsboro
The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon put Wellsboro on the map. Also called Pine Creek Gorge, the canyon runs deep and long through Tioga County, and several overlooks near town give a clear line down into it. Cyclists ride the Pine Creek Rail Trail along the gorge floor for a closer look.
Back on Main Street, gas lamps and a working arts scene keep the town busy year-round. The Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center shows rotating exhibits of regional work throughout the season. In June, the Pennsylvania Laurel Festival honors the mountain laurel, the state flower of Pennsylvania, with a craft market, a pageant, and a parade.
Eagles Mere
Two state parks sit within easy reach of Eagles Mere, a small resort town deep in the Sullivan County woods. Worlds End State Park is right next door, popular with campers for its tent sites and rental cabins, though the rocky, mountainous terrain makes for demanding hikes. A short drive away, Ricketts Glen State Park has trails past a chain of waterfalls, a good day out whether the plan is hiking or fishing.
When the weather turns, the town itself has a pair of museums worth an afternoon. The Eagles Mere Air Museum and the neighboring auto museum sit side by side, with restored aircraft, classic cars, and vintage engines on display across the two collections.
Bedford
Bedford grew up in the Allegheny Mountains of south-central Pennsylvania around a set of mineral springs that drew visitors long before there was a resort to house them. The Omni Bedford Springs Resort dates to an 1806 inn and now holds National Historic Landmark status, with eight springs on the grounds that feed the spa and pools. Presidents came for the water, and James Buchanan ran his summer White House from here in the years before the Civil War.
Downtown Bedford holds its own against the resort. East Pitt Street is lined with well-preserved brick storefronts and Federal-era buildings, and the Fort Bedford Museum, set in a reconstruction of the 1758 frontier fort, covers the town's colonial history down by the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. The Allegheny ridgelines close in on every side, so the drive in is half the appeal.
Honesdale
Honesdale sits in the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, not far from the New York line, with a long-standing reputation as one of the friendlier towns in the region. The Stourbridge Line carries passengers on excursion trips along the river valley, an easy way to take in the surrounding scenery from a rail car, on the route that gave Honesdale its claim as a birthplace of the American railroad.
The community shows up in its gathering places. The Cooperage Project brings people together for music, dance, and art, and its organizers open events to as wide a crowd as they can. For local work in a range of styles, the Wayne County Arts Alliance runs a gallery of area artists a short walk away.
Jim Thorpe
The Jim Thorpe streetscape climbs the hillsides of the Pocono Mountains, a town of steep streets and nineteenth-century stone and brick. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway is the best first stop, with rides through the gorge in every season. For a sense of the town's cultural life, the Mauch Chunk Opera House has musicals and plays on its calendar throughout the year.
Autumn is the marquee season in the Poconos, and Jim Thorpe stages some of the state's better foliage displays. The Jim Thorpe Fall Foliage Festival runs through much of October, when the streets fill with food from local eateries, vendors selling autumn crafts, and the turning leaves on every ridge above town.
Lititz
Lititz sits in the heart of Lancaster County's Amish country, a downtown of buildings and businesses that have stood for more than a century. The best known is the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, where a tour walks you through how the pretzels are made and lets you twist one yourself. It plays especially well with kids. A couple of doors down, Wilbur Chocolate keeps an extensive counter of sweets for anyone with a taste for it.
Just outside town, the Wolf Sanctuary of PA runs guided and self-guided tours of its grounds for a close look at the resident wolves. In autumn, the staff host full-moon evenings as public fundraisers that support the sanctuary's work.
New Hope
Art and river scenery share the billing in New Hope, the artistic center of Bucks County, where county residents come to show their work. Much of it centers on the Bucks County Playhouse, home to some of the strongest stage productions in southeastern Pennsylvania, where the company puts on classic plays and musicals with a modern eye. Before a show, New Hope Arts is a short walk away, with paintings and sculpture from regional artists in a roomy gallery.
The natural side holds its own. Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve protects more than 700 native species of the Delaware Valley across its 134 acres, a quiet spot for photos or an unhurried afternoon.
Kennett Square
Longwood Gardens is the marquee sight in Kennett Square, one of the most striking in the state. Pierre du Pont's former estate covers more than 1,100 acres of botanical displays, a conservatory, and fountain shows, and a full day still leaves parts of it unseen. Travelers come from well outside the region for it.
There is more to the town once the gardens close. Anson B. Nixon Park has trails that loop through and around an old-growth stand of forest, good for a stretch outdoors. Art lovers can stop at the Square Pear Fine Art Gallery, which shows work from some of the Philadelphia area's better-known artists.
Where Pennsylvania's Scenery Comes First
What ties these ten towns together is that each one grew up around a single landmark and never lost sight of it. Mill Run has Fallingwater, Wellsboro has the gorge, Kennett Square has the gardens, Bedford has its springs, and the quieter places like Eagles Mere have the water and the woods. Pick any one of them and the scenery gives you a reason to stay past lunch.
