Moving to Douglassville, PA information needed (Allentown, Reading: house, school district, organic)

[mrgriffin]

Moving my family down to Douglassville, PA from northern, NJ, already found a nice house but see little infastructure along the 422 highway in that area. Are there plans to develop the area that anyone knows about? What about the Daniel Boone School district, my son is headed into his Junior year there and does not know what to expect. Decent places to eat, good supermarkets, etc? Really do not know the area at all so need to hear what is out there or close by.

Thanks in advance,

MrGriffin

[BPP1999]

Define "infrastructure." No, you are not going to find lots of highways like you do in North Jersey, that's for sure. The area is developing, though. Your son will likely feel that he is going to school with some "hick-y" kind of kids, and you will see some "hick-y" people around town. 15 years ago, that area was pretty much a secluded backwater, but with suburbanization it's getting more built up and more professionals live there now. There's some chain restaurants along Route 100, with more to come in time, I'm sure. South on Route 100 will take you to West Chester, which is quaint and nice and has lots of yuppies and restaurants. There's the Coventry Mall right near Pottstown which is small but serves its purpose. They are also supposedly building a more upscale, lifestyle shopping center near the Coventry Mall. Also, Limerick, which is 10 minutes or so from Douglassville, is getting a Premium Outlet Center. 20 miles east on 422 takes you to King of Prussia and the 2nd largest mall in the USA. Douglassville is a pretty nice area, but it will be different than North Jersey.

[mrgriffin]

Hey BPP1999,

Rereading my original post the term "infrastructure" was a bit on the vague side, sorry about that, it was just one of those days. As for my real meaning, maybe a few more supermarkets (can't remember if I saw even one in the general area or not), Home Depo or Lowes, etc..Guess I'm just spoiled from having things so close where we were living before. While we are from NJ (my son was born in NE PA where we lived prior to our NJ move), it does not mean we were living in a dense urban city, no we were in north west NJ, yes just off RT80, but in a community of less than 2,800 homes, (we are not yuppies by any stretch of the word) which is why we chose Douglassville as it was our best bang for our buck while affording me the ease of commuting for work (Philly and Allentown mostly), all while having a similar feel. School wise for my son, the stats are as close to where he was, sure the "culture shock" is going to take him a while to adapt to, but he is a smart kid with a great personality, so he'll make friends easily (I hope). Again, appreciate the response, anything else you would like to add, or point us towards, would be great.

Sincerely,

Mrgriffin

[Icy Tea]

Douglassville has a Redner's which is a big supermarket. It might not be as fancy as a Giant, but its prices are good. There's a Giant Market in Exeter and one in Pottstown. Also Boyertown has a Super Wal Mart. There's even a Whole Foods organic market( not very impressive, are they?) they just built in one of the new mini strip malls along 422.
Exeter( west on route 422) has a Home depot, a Boscov's dept. store, Wal Mart( soon to go super center) , Staple's, more restaurants, although the major Reading shopping district is in Wyomissing. Pottstown has pretty much the same but I don't get down there often to look around. Exeter is also talking about building a Target in a new mall although hopefully that never gets built.

[mrgriffin]

Icy Tea,

Thanks, when we get moved in we'll check those areas and places out.


MrGriffin