Town · New Hope, Bucks County
New Hope
A riverside arts town across the bridge from Lambertville, with galleries, the Bucks County Playhouse, the canal towpath and a heritage railroad.
Photo: Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
23 places
Small Towns
Canal towns, mountain main streets, Victorian county seats
Pennsylvania is a state of small towns, and many of the best grew up around a canal, a railroad or a county courthouse. New Hope looks across the Delaware to New Jersey, Lititz was laid out by Moravians around a church square, and Jim Thorpe crowds into a narrow valley above the Lehigh River. In the north, Wellsboro lights its main street with gas lamps; in the middle of the state, Bellefonte keeps its Victorian streets; and in the Laurel Highlands, Ligonier gathers around a town square with a bandstand at its center.
Each is worth a day trip on its own, with parks, trails or historic sites close by to fill out the day. Shops and restaurants come and go, so check what's open before a special trip.
Our picks
Where to start
Town · Lititz, Lancaster County
Lititz
A Moravian town founded in the 1750s, with a stately church square, a spring-fed park and a lively main street long associated with pretzels and chocolate.
Town · Jim Thorpe, Carbon County
Jim Thorpe
A Victorian coal-and-railroad town packed into a steep Lehigh River gorge, with ornate brick streets, a mansion museum, river rafting, bike trails and excursion trains.
Town · Wellsboro, Tioga County
Wellsboro
A Tioga County seat with gas streetlights along a tree-shaded Main Street, a village green, and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon a short drive away.
Town · Bellefonte, Centre County
Bellefonte
A Victorian county seat of ironmasters' mansions and governors' homes, built around the Big Spring and Talleyrand Park, with trout fishing on Spring Creek.
Town · Ligonier, Westmoreland County
Ligonier
Built around a green Diamond with a bandstand, a small Laurel Highlands town with shops and cafes in old storefronts, a reconstructed fort and the mountains close by.
The full list
Every small towns place
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Bedford
A Lincoln Highway county seat with 18th- and 19th-century buildings, the house where Washington stayed during the Whiskey Rebellion, covered bridges nearby and a grand old mineral-springs resort.
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Bellefonte
A Victorian county seat of ironmasters' mansions and governors' homes, built around the Big Spring and Talleyrand Park, with trout fishing on Spring Creek.
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Carlisle
A handsome Cumberland Valley county seat of limestone and brick, home to Dickinson College, the Army War College and its Army Heritage museum, and big classic-car shows at the fairgrounds.
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Chadds Ford
A Brandywine Valley village known for the Wyeth family of painters, the Brandywine Museum of Art and the 1777 Battle of Brandywine.
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Doylestown
The Bucks County seat, home of Henry Mercer's three concrete landmarks (the Mercer Museum, Fonthill Castle and the Moravian Tile Works) and the Michener Art Museum.
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Franklin
Where French Creek meets the Allegheny River, a Victorian county seat with oil-boom mansions, a downtown laid out around two parks, and paved river trails leading out of town.
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Gettysburg
A brick-and-clapboard crossroads town wrapped by the battlefield, with Lincoln Square, the house where Lincoln stayed the night before his famous address, a college campus and orchard country close by.
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Jim Thorpe
A Victorian coal-and-railroad town packed into a steep Lehigh River gorge, with ornate brick streets, a mansion museum, river rafting, bike trails and excursion trains.
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Kennett Square
A walkable small town that calls itself the Mushroom Capital of the World, with restaurants and galleries along State Street and Longwood Gardens just outside.
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Lewisburg
A Susquehanna river town and home of Bucknell University, with a handsome Victorian Market Street, an Art Deco movie house and a riverside park.
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Ligonier
Built around a green Diamond with a bandstand, a small Laurel Highlands town with shops and cafes in old storefronts, a reconstructed fort and the mountains close by.
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Lititz
A Moravian town founded in the 1750s, with a stately church square, a spring-fed park and a lively main street long associated with pretzels and chocolate.
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Milford
The Pike County seat on the Delaware, with leafy Victorian streets, Gifford Pinchot's Grey Towers estate, and the waterfalls and trails of the Delaware Water Gap recreation area nearby.
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Mount Gretna
A cottage colony in the woods, born of a Chautauqua and a camp meeting, where gingerbread cottages line narrow lanes and summers bring a playhouse, music, an art show and a swimming lake.
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New Hope
A riverside arts town across the bridge from Lambertville, with galleries, the Bucks County Playhouse, the canal towpath and a heritage railroad.
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Peddler's Village
A village of shops, restaurants and an inn among landscaped gardens in Lahaska, with seasonal festivals and holiday lights.
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Strasburg
A small town amid Amish farmland that is a magnet for train lovers, with a steam heritage railroad, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and a toy train museum on its doorstep.
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Titusville
Where the oil industry began in 1859, with the Drake Well Museum on the site of the first commercial well, Victorian houses built on oil money and a bike trail through Oil Creek's valley.
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Wellsboro
A Tioga County seat with gas streetlights along a tree-shaded Main Street, a village green, and the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon a short drive away.
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West Chester
The Chester County seat, a handsome college town of brick and green serpentine stone, with a Greek Revival courthouse and a lively downtown of restaurants and shops.
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Eagles Mere
Victorian summer cottages and inns ring a clear mountain lake, with a footpath around the shore and, in winter, a toboggan slide onto the frozen lake.
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Foxburg
A tiny borough where the Clarion River meets the Allegheny, with a golf club dating to 1887, river views and a quiet main street popular with paddlers and cyclists.
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Harmony
A small town founded in 1804 by German Pietist followers of George Rapp, with sturdy brick buildings, a history museum and the Harmonists' walled cemetery.
