Small towns with country feeling outside of Harrisburg?

[CHIP72]

Carlisle is west of the Susquehanna River.

Actually, college towns like Carlisle and Elizabethtown both would probably places where you wouldn't have an issue. Both of the towns aren't rural country areas, but they aren't cities either.

I may be overstating the case a little bit when I imply you may have issues in some of the rural areas; it's possible you would not. Having said that, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to me if you did however. I will say the number of people who would actually bother you about the mixed-race issue is fairly small, even in the rural areas. If you live in a rural area in south central PA and prove yourself to be good people in the community, I'm almost definite people wouldn't bother you.

[S.Joel]

Yes of course it is west, got a little turned around for a minute. I was just doing a search on this subject and the pervading opinion seems to be that S. Central PA is quite intolerant. More than little disheartening. It does seem like people also seem to feel like Harrisburg is a pit, guess I won't be missing anything. So now that I am correctly oriented, were you refering more to the Palmyra area initially? I am hearing some not so positive things about the Lancaster area, not very accepting? CHIP72, I really appreciate your responses, Thanks a bunch. S.

[CHIP72]

PARTS of Harrisburg are a pit, but a number of parts of the city are fairly nice too. There are parts of the city that would actually work for a family; I'd suggest the far north end north of Division Street. In general in the city of Harrisburg, the closer you are to the Susquehanna River, the nicer the areas are. However, most of Harrisburg that far north wouldn't be a problem, except near the 7th Street Shopping Center (near 7th and Division). The one other thing I'll note is I'm unsure about the schools, but I don't think Harrisburg city schools have a very good reputation.

I think the thing I'm somewhat unclear about is whether you want to live in a town or if you want to live the country (i.e. in a housing subdivision). An answer to that question would be helpful for me to help you further. I've been under the impression you wanted to live in a country setting rather than a town.

One town that may work for you would be Middletown. That town isn't a super nice town like some places near there (Hummelstown, Hershey, Elizabethtown), but it definitely isn't run down either (or at least most of it isn't); I'd personally consider living there. I'm pretty sure Middletown has some minorities, and it isn't real far from the "Harrisburg East Shore" shopping areas; the Harrisburg Mall and the new High Pointe Commons shopping center are probably about 5-6 miles away and the US 22 commercial strip is about 10 miles away. Downtown Harrisburg is also about 10 miles from Middletown. Finally, if public transportation is a consideration, Capital Area Transit has one route that goes there (Route 7) and Amtrak's Keystone Service has a station there too. The Keystone Service has direct service to Philadelphia, New York, and of course Harrisburg. (You don't sound like you are too interested in visiting cities but because I'm a big transportation/public transit geek I had to mention what was available. )

Incidentally, I'd consider Palmyra to be about as nice as Middletown; it's not a great town attractiveness-wise, but it is a nice, good town.

[S.Joel]

I really am looking for a more country setting or at least an area that has more of that feel/a very small town feeling. We currently live in Twain Harte Ca. and the town itself consists mainly of one short street with some restaurants and shops(we get a lot of vacationers) and around the corner is a small shopping center with a nice but overpriced(for the tourists) grocery store,pharmacy,shops and a restaurant. This is all ok because I can go 20-30 min. down the hill and have 4 major grocery stores to choose from as well as Walmart and a few dept. stores, movie theater, restaurants, martial arts(for my son)etc. Now, even this town(Sonora) is pretty small. You see people you know almost every stop you make but it is large enough to provide all, or most of your needs most of the time. I know I won't find exactly this kind of set up elsewhere but as close as I could come would be great. Now we live in the trees(figuratively speaking), and above the snowline. Our neighbors are close but not right on top of each other. A few more neighbors would be nice for the kids-the possibility of playmates close by. Sorry to be so longwinded. I describe all this so you can get an idea of where we are and what we like. It really would be great to find a place like this-kind of rural but also close enough to what we need. I'm not super concerned about schools. I home school and our program is available in PA. If we found a nice area that still has a small town feel and is pretty(we love nature) but not exactly rural we would consider it. I realize we may have to flexible. As always Thanks. S.

[S.Joel]

Oh, I almost forgot. My husband's company also has branches in Huntingdon Valley and Erie. Do you know anything about those areas? He could concievably transfer to wherever they had a spot(as long as they pay him at least his current wage). We were hoping for New Castle but that spot fell through for now(with slow down in economy). Right now the Harrisburg branch is the one we know will be needing new people.

[CHIP72]

The rural, country places I mentioned earlier in the thread, especially those north of Harrisburg, most closely meet the description of the Twain Harte/Sonora area (based on where those places are in California - I looked on a map). However, you could probably find something somewhat similar to that near some of the towns that have been mentioned in this thread, like east of Middletown or north of Palmyra. There are a lot of country-feeling areas not too far from the towns 10-20 miles from Harrisburg (Middletown, Hershey/Palmyra, Mechanicsburg, Dillsburg, etc.).

I don't know that much about Erie, except that it is in far northwestern PA and almost definitely doesn't have an economy doing anywhere near as well as Harrisburg/south central PA. The city of Erie has a larger population than the city of Harrisburg, but the Harrisburg area has about twice the population of the Erie area. I have no idea what race relations would be in that area. Huntingdon Valley is a suburb not too far north of Philadelphia near the Montgomery/Bucks County line. I've never been in Huntingdon Valley, but it is likely a nice, pretty well-to-do area. This area would be a lot more built up than what you are accustomed to; you'd need to live relatively far north in Bucks/Montgomery Counties to find the more rural, country-style living you appear to prefer. I suspect race relations are less of an issue in Huntingdon Valley than in south central PA.

[jerry.shilling]

I agree I do not like city living either. We live in the Palmyra area. Its a great place to live, clsoe to Hersher and Harrisburg. Some other towns to consider are Annville, Jonestown is good because of it easy access to rt 81.
You may also want to look at Elizabethtown, its known as a bedroom community. The town is in between Harrisburg and Lancaster. Rt 283 runs past Elizabethtown heading to both Lancaster and Harrisburg. It would be about a 20 minute ride to Harrisburg.

[Rtom45]

I'm not sure if this is too late or not. E-town (Elizabethtown) is a good choice. We just had to sell a home there and really regretted doing it, we had considered retiring there. Palmyra is also a good choice, my daughter teaches high school there but she lives in Hershey. Some of the other small towns between Harrisburg and Lancaster would also be good choices.
My wife and I live in Erie, and I understand that is, or was, a consideration also. If you have a job coming into town, you should be OK. Don't expect to find work here, it just won't happen. There are small towns in the general area of Erie, but not nearly what you'll find around Harrisburg. Millcreek township, Fairview and Girard are good options in the Erie Region. Be prepared for winter though if you decide to move here.