Affordable "small" towns with beautiful houses and downtowns? (Erie: school districts, college)

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by PAhippo

haven't been through Nicholson in over 15 yrs but I remember that as having a lot of big old houses.

It has a block long downtown too, on what is now a side street (US 11 took over the old RR bed when the new RR bypassed it). It's definitely an aesthetic outlier as the new (as in 1912-15) RR bypass is, um, the focal point of that community in a way a town square just could never be.

[rsrobbins]

Williamsport has its Millionaires Row which features many Victorian mansions. If you want Victorian houses in a more rural area then I suggest Mifflinburg.

[North Beach Person]

Brookville.
Butler on a couple streets, most of the older housing stock there is Craftsman built to serve the mill and Pullman workers and miners.
Smethport on a couple streets.
Coudersport. It's taken a dive since the bankruptcy of Adelphi Cable and the imprisonment of the Rigas'.
Clarion, but Main Street is a hodge podge of buildings.

Of the ones I named Brookville has probably the nicest and most cohesive Main Street. The owners there have really been serious about renovating the buildings to bring back the 1900 look. Only one building still has the remuddling of the facade done in the 1960's. The types of houses you're looking for are mostly on the north side of Town, the south side was mainly for workmen although there are a few of what you're looking for, most are the Craftsmen style or newer.

Be aware that winters in all the Towns I listed can be pretty miserable.

[RomaniGypsy]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Newport even with its natural foods store and art gallery is by no means a liberal town, Perry County is about as red as a county gets in PA, even in the borough the R primary is the election.

Sounds great to me... :-)

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Troy (Bradford County) has Victorians, smaller and used to be cheaper than Wellsboro but not sure if that still holds with the gas rush.

Honestly, that "gas rush" stuff worries me. I've been reading about how the influx of riffraff has brought about a rise in crime... and who REALLY wants to live in a crime-ridden place except perhaps other criminals?

Originally Posted by ki0eh

NY's western Southern Tier is not liberal, west of Corning there isn't much distinction on the PA/NY border although they do need to pay welfare benefits set statewide, largely off the local taxpayer (meaning property tax outside The City where the benefits are set).

Yeah, that's the problem with NY... more than half of the population lives in NYC, so the rest of the state has to suffer for their politics.

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Owego, NY is not a liberal town, with a Victorian downtown around the courthouse square and a number of high style Victorian residences, though I haven't been there since the 2011 record flood. In that town the social services office is at the old county home outside village limits, therefore unlike many other upstate NY shire towns you don't have as much of an assortment of social services clients (often also drawn from elsewhere by cheap housing) locating in close proximity to the courthouse.

Well, maybe I'll look into it anyway.

Originally Posted by rsrobbins

Williamsport has its Millionaires Row which features many Victorian mansions. If you want Victorian houses in a more rural area then I suggest Mifflinburg.

I guess I shall!

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

Brookville.
Butler on a couple streets, most of the older housing stock there is Craftsman built to serve the mill and Pullman workers and miners.
Smethport on a couple streets.
Coudersport. It's taken a dive since the bankruptcy of Adelphi Cable and the imprisonment of the Rigas'.
Clarion, but Main Street is a hodge podge of buildings.

Of the ones I named Brookville has probably the nicest and most cohesive Main Street. The owners there have really been serious about renovating the buildings to bring back the 1900 look. Only one building still has the remuddling of the facade done in the 1960's. The types of houses you're looking for are mostly on the north side of Town, the south side was mainly for workmen although there are a few of what you're looking for, most are the Craftsmen style or newer.

Be aware that winters in all the Towns I listed can be pretty miserable.

I've lived in PA before, so I know the winters. As for Brookville, interestingly enough, that town has serious significance for my wife and me... I guess I never paid much attention to this stuff when we were there many moons ago. I remember that there were some neat old houses and a Fox's Pizza (yeah!!!!!!!!!!), but that's about it.

As for Coudersport, what's that you mentioned about "the imprisonment of the Rigas"?

[Lion11]

Bellefonte, no doubt. It has some of the best architecture I've ever seen, especially for a town of only about 6,000. And, most importantly, downtown is pretty hopping, with lots of great shops and restaurants. The economy there is pretty strong. It's also very affordable, a completely renovated 3-4 bedroom 1800s Victorian can be found in the $170-$250,000 range, no problem. Beautiful park tying downtown all together, with a creek running through it. Check it out:

Victorian Bellefonte: Old-world charm in a modern world
Borough of Bellefonte Borough of Bellefonte » Pennsylvania's Victorian Jewel (check out "Victorian Bellefonte virtual walking tour" under "HARB")
Bellefonte Intervalley Area Chamber of Commerce / Home Page
wikipedia provides some good info: Bellefonte, Pennsylvania - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Best of luck with your search!

[North Beach Person]

The Rigas family started and owned Adelphi Communications. It went belly up several years ago and the father and his sons ended up in prison for embezzlement and other charges related to the failure of the business.

[ki0eh]

Ridgway has gotten fixed up but not quite gentrified exactly. Between there and Brookville is Brockway, not artsy but stable and proud with 2 glass container factories still running and a few big houses (and also Fox's Pizza on a side street).

I haven't been to Punxsutawney lately but between the culinary institute and its local famous rodent it can have more going on than the usual small town. Indiana has promise too as a college town but also seeing some gas shale services move in.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Oil City lately, where did all those threads go?

[North Beach Person]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

The Rigas family started and owned Adelphi Communications. It went belly up several years ago and the father and his sons ended up in prison for embezzlement and other charges related to the failure of the business.

Should have said Adelphia, not Adelphi.

[Rtom45]

How about Hershey and Elizabetntown in eastern PA.

[ki0eh]

Right now in the center of Hershey there is a 20' tall mound of dirt where the intersection of Cocoa and Chocolate Avenues used to be. (The state is taking out a dog leg intersection after removing some of the last locally owned businesses.) Hershey also doesn't have any Victorians because it started building years after the Queen was in the grave.

The adjacent Borough of Hummelstown has locally owned businesses around a square (Newt Gingrich as a boy lived in an apartment overlooking it). A number of the homes have Victorian detailing but one can't say they are as high style as what you might find in Brookville, Montrose, Oil City, or Sunbury.

Speaking of Sunbury, did you check out Selinsgrove just across the river (not the Hummels Wharf/Shamokin Dam 'strip', but the actual Borough of Selinsgrove?)