Northeastern Pennsylvania Photo Tour: PART THREE (Scranton, Wilkes-Barre: cul-de-sac, for sale, condo)

[SteelCityRising]

The following is my third series of photos in my online tour of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a place where I've grown up and will continue to call home for the rest of my life. The charming Victorian community of Honesdale is home to just under 5,000 and is the county seat of beautiful Wayne County in the northeastern corner of the Commonwealth. It's located approximately fifteen minutes northwest of Lake Wallenpaupack via U.S. Route 6, and is also located roughly a half hour northeast of the Scranton area via U.S. Route 6. The drive between Scranton and Honesdale via the Casey Highway is truly breathtaking; a canopy of oranges and reds dots the mountains as you climb in elevation out of the valley floor and into Wayne County, to a high of approximately 2,000 feet above sea level near Waymart.

My family and I visited Honesdale on Sunday for their annual Fall Harvest Festival, in which the downtown came alive with arts and craft vendors, bands, open houses, etc., and the day was just lovely, with a high of around 76 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring along my camera on Sunday, so I headed back up on this dreary Wednesday after class to snap some more. The pictures would have been much more vivid if it wasn't so drizzly and bleak outside; please try to picture the entire town on a nice, sunny day! I hope you enjoy the images of Honesdale as much as I enjoyed snapping them! This is my largest photo set yet, so be prepared to be amazed (or bored!) LOL!


Welcome to Honesdale everyone!

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[SteelCityRising]

A pair of interesting dwellings line U.S. Route 6 into the heart of thriving Honesdale.


Wayne Memorial Hospital


The Hotel Wayne






Just a few of the houses of worship you'll find along aptly named "Church Street", which parallels Main Street and separates the downtown from Central Park.








Some more scenes from Church Street

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[SteelCityRising]

Wayne County Courthouse


A Central Park Statue





Some dwellings near Central Park
















Downtown Honesdale


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[SteelCityRising]

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[SteelCityRising]

Another Inviting Honesdale Neighborhood; Try Replicating Some of These Architectural Treasures on a Suburban Cul-De-Sac!



Heading Back to Scranton...


Phew! Now I'm exhausted! Please tell me where you'd like me to go for my next little adventure! I'm enjoying this immensely!!!

[Pensypat]

You did a wonderful job of capturing my area ScrantonWilkesBarre. Too bad you were in town on such a dreary day....but no matter, the photos are great!

[Sharon R.]

Love it, gorgeous! Every time I look at a new area, then I have to go to realtor.com to check on what's for sale and how much! SWB, you make it so much fun!! Thanks.

Sharon

[geos]

WOW! Small town America at it's best. Almost makes me want to become straight! (That's almost a requirement to live in rural America; you may disagree.) So much nicer than the ugly, smelly, congested city I live in (NYC). Some really gorgeous houses. The leaves are off the trees already??? Some nice color still left tho. Hope there's some left when I get there.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by geos

WOW! Small town America at it's best. Almost makes me want to become straight! (That's almost a requirement to live in rural America; you may disagree.) So much nicer than the ugly, smelly, congested city I live in (NYC). Some really gorgeous houses. The leaves are off the trees already??? Some nice color still left tho. Hope there's some left when I get there.

Hey there George! Well, for such a small, rural town, Honesdale actually gave me an aura of "progressiveness." There were yoga instructors, health food stores, coffeeshops, etc. in the downtown; amenities you usually only find in typically more affluent, more well-educated areas (Namely Clarks Summit in NEPA). As such, I'd have to gander that the people here would actually be more accepting of different lifestyles than most other small towns in America. Couple that with the fact that about 25% of the cars I saw in Honesdale were from NY/NJ, and I'm sure the locals by now are probably used to "tolerating" new cultures and ideas.

The colors right now in the mountains of NEPA are at their peak, and when you arrive in about a month, most trees will be barren already (If you can believe this, those last two pictures in the thread of the mountains were even more breathtaking this past Sunday with the blue skies overhead!)

By the way, from one gay man to another, I can tell you that you shouldn't find much hatred or prejudice around here. Most locals don't condone homosexuality, but at the same time they're too timid to tell you to your face (They go behind your backs to bad-mouth you instead, as I've learned growing up here on Wisteria Lane). My ex-boyfriend and I had very little trouble when we were together; one astute waitress was even bold enough to say that we made a "hot couple." (He's also ironically from NYC)How she could tell that we weren't just brothers or best friends is beyond me; must have been our impeccable fashion tastes! LOL! There are resources available locally for the GLBT community; they're just not well-publicized and are difficult to locate. I know Barnes & Noble has a monthly gay book club meeting, and they also carry the local "NEPA Pride Guide", which is distributed regularly by the Rainbow Alliance. We're slowly shedding that "lynch mob mentality" in PA; I just wish we'd catch up to NY/NJ's open-mindedness and tolerance a bit more quickly, especially as our minority population continues to swell (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre now has the FIFTH-LARGEST percentage of Hispanic homeowners in the nation!) With change comes the need to adapt to new cultures, values, and ideals. You can either tolerate them or be miserable the rest of your lives as none of us are going away any time soon!

[goodgirl49]

Those homes are really interesting and in great condition for the most part. Definitely not the cookie-cutter homes found here in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Around here a typical home goes for around $600,000. What is usually the going price in Honesdale? My husband and I are both originally from PA and are considering moving back when we retire.

Cathy