11 Prettiest Downtown Strips In Pennsylvania
A pretty downtown strip in Pennsylvania usually has a river behind it and a railroad in its past. Honesdale sits on the old Delaware and Hudson Canal, and vintage trains still leave from Main Street. In Jim Thorpe, Italianate and Second Empire storefronts rise up a hillside above the Lehigh. Down the center median of Wellsboro's Main Street, 58 gas lamps burn after dark. These eleven towns hold some of the prettiest downtown strips in the state, each an old industrial main street worth a slow afternoon.
Honesdale
Century-old buildings run the length of Main Street in Honesdale, a downtown that grew up along the Lackawaxen River as a 19th-century transportation hub. In 1828, the Delaware and Hudson Canal linked boats to Kingston, New York, where they met the Hudson River. The canal also figured in the early history of commercial railroads. The steam-powered Stourbridge Lion made a trial run here on the canal's gravity railroad, though the engine proved too heavy for the wooden rails. A full-scale replica of the locomotive now stands downtown in the Wayne County Historical Society Museum, set in an 1860 building that once held the offices of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company.
Railroads stayed central to local life, and the Stourbridge Line train excursions still depart from downtown Honesdale. The vintage trains carry passengers through the Lackawaxen River Valley in the Pocono Mountains, and the runs fill up during fall foliage season.
The last boat left Honesdale in 1898, but the canal structures are still in place. Just south of town, 16 acres of parkland surround Lock 31. A walk along the former towpath turns up good birdwatching and river views.
Downtown has more than history. Small shops and restaurants fill the strip, among them Dyberry Mercantile, with its curated mix of books, clothing, and one-of-a-kind vintage objects. A few doors down, Known Grove Books and More carries used and new titles, and Sawmill Cycles supplies bicyclists with gear and repairs.
Jim Thorpe
Jim Thorpe's downtown sits above the Lehigh River where it twists through the valley. The Old Mauch Chunk Historic District takes in 28 buildings that preserve the walkable core, with Italianate, Greek Revival, Queen Anne, Second Empire, and Romanesque facades along Broadway. Local shops fill the storefronts, including the Jim Thorpe House of Jerky, where the top-round beef comes in a range of flavors alongside tea and peanuts. Nearby sit Rainbow's End, a candy store, and the Treasure Shop, stocked with gifts and home goods.
The trails around town are a draw of their own. The Switchback Railroad Trail runs more than 12 miles for walking or biking, and the route into downtown sits on a gentle downhill grade. The 165-mile D&L Trail, which traces the former Delaware and Lehigh Canal, is also reachable from the center of town and runs the length of the river valley.
The Mansion House Bridge carries the D&L Trail over the Lehigh River and connects to the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway downtown. The railway runs on a regular schedule with two steam locomotives and diesel backups. Fall leaf-peeping trips and bike trains link riders to rail trails in White Haven, and the return leg to Jim Thorpe rolls downhill through Lehigh Gorge State Park.
Easton
Easton's downtown meets New Jersey at the junction of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers. Center Square sits at Northampton and North 3rd Street, a circular park with the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at its heart. Built in 1900 and standing 75 feet tall, the monument is a memorial to Easton's Civil War veterans, and bubbling fountains ring its base. Shops and restaurants cluster on the streets just off the square, among them the Quadrant Book Mart and Coffee House, a used bookstore with more than 50,000 titles and coffee to go with them.
The square fills with festivals through the year. The annual Easton Garlic Festival features live music, food vendors, and garlic in every form, including garlic-laced desserts and a children's area with a kids' cooking competition. The EastON Fest turns the same streets into a large-scale immersive art event, projecting images onto nearby buildings for a walkable light installation after dark.
Across from the fountain stands the Crayola Experience, built around the famous crayons. The interactive, child-friendly museum has more than 20 exhibits where kids can touch, play, and make art.
Northampton Street runs through Center Square and out to Riverside Park. The waterfront park has biking trails, an amphitheater, and a boat ramp, with a view of the weir dam waterfalls where the Lehigh meets the Delaware.
New Hope
Shade trees cover New Hope's downtown strip, set between the Delaware River and the historic Delaware Canal. The river runs through the town's history and its setting. The 58.89-mile Delaware Canal Towpath traces the canal between Easton and Bristol, and a scenic railroad departs from the downtown station much as one does in Jim Thorpe.
New Hope is known for arts and culture, and its strip is lined with shops, restaurants, and galleries. At the Bucks County Playhouse, a restored grist mill at the river's edge, the company puts on musicals and concerts and runs community classes. When the original structure faced demolition in the 1930s, a group of performers stepped in and saved it as a summer stock theater.
Staff at the New Hope Arts Center support local artists and give them space to create and collaborate. The nonprofit's shows feature contemporary work from New Hope and neighboring Lambertville. Commercial galleries round out the scene, among them the Creeper Gallery, with its gothic art, peculiars, and antiques, and the Arete Gallery, where the focus is on artists working on environmental themes across painting, textiles, photography, and sculpture.
The strip has plenty of options for eating and drinking. At Martine's Riverhouse Restaurant, the kitchen turns out seasonal American bistro cooking at the river's edge, and Oldstone Steakhouse is set inside a 19th-century church of local stone overlooking Main Street.
Ardmore
South of the city on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Ardmore's historic commercial center stretches along Lancaster Avenue. A regional Amtrak and SEPTA station sits at the middle of it, and shops and restaurants continue around toward Coulter Avenue.
The shops carry a wide mix of wares. American Trench specializes in domestically made clothing, its brand built around American manufacturing. Across the street, pucciManuli is stocked with wooden toys, crafting kits, party supplies, and baby essentials. Around the corner, the woman-owned bookstore Main Point Books has a curated selection of new titles, and its owners host author events.
Ardmore leaves room for making things, too. The Mud Room Studio is a paint-your-own pottery spot, where guests pick out unpainted stoneware, decorate it, and leave it for a kiln firing. Staff there also book private parties, sell take-home kits, and run glass fusion projects.
Nightlife holds up here as well. The Ardmore Music Hall is an independent venue with live shows from tribute bands and original acts. Next door, the Ripplewood Whiskey Bar has handcrafted cocktails and a New American menu, with a kids' menu on hand too.
West Chester
Colonial-era brick and limestone buildings stand along the downtown strip on Gay Street in West Chester. The early grid of narrow streets has become a walkable commercial district shaded by mature trees. More than 4,000 buildings here appear on the National Register of Historic Places.
West Chester has grown into a dining destination, with casual and formal rooms side by side. Andiario is a white-tablecloth room with a prix fixe menu that changes weekly and an open kitchen in view of the tables. Around the corner, the local mini-chain Stove and Tap works through an ever-changing menu of seasonal dishes, and Sedona Taphouse across the street lists as many as 50 draft beers alongside its own New American menu.
Music fans gravitate to Hop Fidelity, a combination record store and nanobrewery. Customers browse new and pre-owned vinyl, cassettes, artwork, and books over a pour of the shop's own Hop Fidelity beer, and cup holders sit beside the record bins for easy flipping.
West Chester has more than eating and drinking. The Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center, in the historic Armory building, is a venue for live music, films, and family entertainment. Its summer Beer Garden Series pairs outdoor games with live music for a festival-like evening.
Gettysburg
The name Gettysburg calls up the Civil War battle and Abraham Lincoln's address to the nation, yet the heart of this historic town is a downtown strip of small shops and restaurants. Lincoln Square sits at the center. There stands the David Wills House, where Lincoln put the finishing touches on the Gettysburg Address, now a museum with galleries on his visit and a bedroom restored to its 1863 appearance. Outside the house, a lifelike statue of Lincoln by the artist J. Seward Johnson Jr. depicts the president greeting passersby.
Just north of the square, the century-old Majestic Theater is a venue for art exhibitions, films, live dance and music, and private events. Gettysburg College, a few blocks away, owns the theater, and students stage main-stage productions during the academic year.
Next door is the Gettysburg Lincoln Railroad Station, where Lincoln arrived by train during the war. The historic building is now a welcome center and museum, with exhibits on the role of railroads in the conflict and on the town's wider significance.
Antique hunting is another way into the town's history. Along Chambersburg Street, Susquehanna Antiques specializes in fine wood furniture, autographs, and political memorabilia. Next door, 22(9) Vintage Wares has a curated stock of vintage clothing and jewelry, and just off Lincoln Square, Baltimore Street Books and Antiques carries collections that range across military history and music.
Wellsboro
On the north side of the state, historic gaslit street lamps run down the center median of Wellsboro's downtown. The 58 gas lights give off a soft glow after dark, and together with the preserved buildings they make the strip feel like a film set. The town played one, too, when the 2020 Hallmark holiday film Christmas Comes Twice shot here.
Wellsboro leans into the holiday season with its annual Dickens of a Christmas festival. The Victorian-themed marketplace takes over Main Street with food, drinks, and gifts, and musicians, dancers, and singers perform for the crowds under the glow of the gas lights.
Main Street is a center for the arts. The Deane Center for the Performing Arts stands right on it, home base for the Wellsboro Community Concert Association, the Great Lakes Wind Symphony, and the Endless Mountain Music Festival. Its Coolidge Theatre is the stage for plays, musicals, historical education, and concerts. Around the corner, the Hamilton-Gibson Productions company puts on live plays and musicals and runs camps and workshops.
Further down Main Street, behind the Green Free Library, the Gmeiner Art and Cultural Center is a nonprofit that links the community with art and culture. Its gallery space features local artists and groups like the Canyon Photography Club, the Wellsboro Art Club, and the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild.
Bellefonte
Bellefonte lies in the Nittany Valley of the Allegheny Mountains, with the Centre County Courthouse standing over the heart of downtown. Built in 1805, the landmark gained a Greek Revival porch in 1835 and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in 1906.
High Street runs downhill from the courthouse to the waterfront along Spring Creek. Talleyrand Park sits on the bank across from the Talleyrand Park Falls, where a stone spillway forms a small waterfall. The Bellefonte Waterfront Walkway, which opened in 2016, connects to the park and opens the creek to kayakers and catch-and-release anglers.
Across from the park stands the historic Bellefonte Train Station, home to the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society. Its volunteers operate scenic excursions and holiday trains with a self-propelled diesel rail car, and an antique snow plow and caboose sit on a siding outside.
High Street is also the place to eat, from a quick snack to a full meal. My Cafe Buzz turns out breakfast sandwiches, pastries, and ice cream. Across the street, Bonfatto's Italian Market and Corner Cafe has panini and Italian-American pasta dishes alongside a grocery section of cheese, imported meats, and pantry staples. For a casual sit-down meal, The Governors' Pub and Restaurant has a tavern menu with beer and craft cocktails.
Ridgway
The Ridgway Historic District marks the downtown strip along Main Street, where the Clarion River and Elk Creek wind past the small town. The Clarion-Little Toby Creek Trail has a trailhead just off Main Street, and hikers pass waterfalls and wildflower fields along its 18-mile length.
Small shops and cafes stand along Main Street. The Creative Cup is a small-batch coffee roaster with espresso drinks, house-made bagels, and baked goods. A few doors down, the Brew Bank Brewing Co. has turned a Victorian-era bank building into a modern brewery, with shareable plates, sandwiches, and its own beers.
Ridgway lies at the southern edge of the Allegheny National Forest, half a million acres of federal land laced with recreation. Just north of town, the Brush Hollow trailhead opens onto 7.7 miles of trail for cross-country skiing, hiking, and mountain biking.
Mudbeard's Bikes and Boards on Main Street carries bikes for road and off-road riding and handles repairs. The shop also stocks accessories for a safe, comfortable ride on the mountain trails.
North East
Near the New York border along the shore of Lake Erie, North East's downtown wraps around Gibson Park. The park is the site of the North East Wine Festival, a celebration of the region's wineries, whose seven area producers turn out European varietals and American grapes.
Gibson Park sits at Main and Lake Street, the commercial center of town, where small shops fill historic storefronts. Visitors can sample locally produced wine in tasting rooms nearby. Driftwood Wine Cellars has a tasting room on Main Street, and Yori Wine Cellars has one on Lake Street with a menu of Italian-inspired small plates.
For a more unusual tasting, the South Shore Wine Company just north of the center holds its flights in a historic stone cavern, where staff guide visitors through the samples. The facility went up in the 1860s to resemble French-style wine storage caves, and its winemakers specialize in sparkling wines made in both traditional and experimental styles.
North East also holds its annual Firemen's Cherry Festival in Heard Memorial Park on Lake Street. The festival features carnival rides, games, and food stands, and its highlight is a Volunteer Firemen's Parade with marching bands, emergency equipment, and specialty firefighting units.
Pretty Downtowns Filled With Exciting Opportunities
Pennsylvania's downtown strips pair fun with pretty settings, and history shapes the character of many. The gas lamps of Wellsboro and the heritage steam trains running out of New Hope are two of the clearest examples. Some towns open straight onto the outdoors, like Ridgway with its Clarion-Little Toby Creek Trail. Others keep the action indoors, whether a film at the Uptown Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester or a concert at the Coolidge Theatre in Wellsboro. Each is a scenic place to live at the center of a strong community.
