Considering a move to Montoursville/Williamsport

[susquehannock]

Originally Posted by Dawne

Mike actually lives outside of town in a very nice development that wasn't even there when I was growing up. If you go to Cellini's Sub Shop in town you might run into him during the off season.

Montoursville sure has its share of sub shops!

Which one is the best? It's always difficult to travel through Montoursville without stopping at Rosencrans Bakery.

[Dawne]

Originally Posted by susquehannock

Montoursville sure has its share of sub shops!

Which one is the best? It's always difficult to travel through Montoursville without stopping at Rosencrans Bakery.

Cellini's has a great ham cosmo. Frankie's has great cheese steaks (although unless they've changed they use ground beef rather than sandwich steaks - still the taste is wonderful).

As far as cold subs, either place will do.

I used to love going to Rosencran's for these doughnut-type pastries that were shaped more like a split roll with the white cream (not Bavarian cream) inside. Oh, they were to die for! We used to live just a block off the main street toward the airport (noisy neighborhood with planes and trains!) and we could walk to Rosencran's, Cellini's, Frankie's, the library, etc. OIP wasn't there at the time. There even used to be a movie theater downtown, then it switched to XXX movies, then to live plays and then I think a jewelry store or something. Not sure what's there now. If you're in town and need a good haircut, stop at Roger's Barbershop across from OIP.

Someone mentioned Flight 800. I had several acquaintances on that flight. The French teacher's husband was our church's treasurer for many years (before he married the French teacher). One of the girls on the plane was the daughter of our insurance agent. That tragedy touched everyone in town in some way.

Let me know if you have any more questions about Montoursville. I have many happy memories of growing up there.

[melindavs]

I lived in williamsport as a kid and moved away in the 3rd grade my family moved to NJ we lived in wayne wanaque and park ridge ..when i first got married i lived in east rutherford and then ...i lived in teaneck nj for 22 years where i raised my kids (now i college)...now after being away from the area for 35 years in total my husband and i have moved back...

williamsport is a really nice town this influx thing they talk of is just a cover for bigots and predjudice, I think diversity is the key to a thriving and interesting area, mexican restaurants and asia cuisine, italian restaurants, vegitarian all add to the flavor ( play on words) of an area
....but if you are of that sort montoursville is the whitelandia of central pa
...they frown on blacks or any one of color moving into their little borough

...but plenty of white trash and rednecks reside in both areas
...as you drive thru montoursville is looks clean and pretty and well maintained, it has a nice little shopping area and is closer to the mall than williamsport

...but williamsport has culture with the williamsport symphony orchestra housed in the community art center ( a renovated and original play house seating 2400) in down williamsport just across from our own micro brewery The bull frog and the largest portraiture mural (just in the process of being painted)
... brandon park with its wonderful roses and band shell has free concerts in the park during the summer ...to the finger of the susquehanna that runs between williamsport and south williamsport.
It is a very musical area with the uptown music collective and the newly formed ray town which will house many artist of different mediums from vintage clohing shops to people who create there own uniquely designed clothing to a blacksmith and a music studio and art studio and a carpenters work shop...and many new people every day...
we have 2 hospitals and 2 colleges within 3 miles of down town.
the best fishing on the planet so claim the anglers.

you can raft the susquehanna or go out to an island and see a real pow wow...there is a fantastic community theater league with there own venue
the 4th of july festivities this year were tremendous with vendors and fireworks and a town full to the brim with people from all walks of life fraternizing and pushing baby strollers and even when the down pour threatenexd to ruin the fire works poeple ducked in door ways and under tarped vendors and returned with maybe there shirts dampened but not their spirits it was a great evening.


williamsport is an extremely friendly and social place with first fridays ( on the first friday of each month is like a street fare down town ) with local artist and bands and food and vendors in the streets everyone comes out and then there is victorian christmas in the fall just before thanks giving ...where we all dress up in our very best victorian wears and tour the mansions and the churches either by original trolleys from the 1800's or horse and carriage. it last all week end and is just a must see even if you dont move in.

and speaking aof churches the city was designed so there is a church on the corner every other block in every direction...now mind you some have been lost to fire and the such but the ones that remain are in there original splendor including a little sprucing up now and again over the last 125 years.


.....the amount of revitalization and renewal that has happened in the last 3 years since we moved back is tremondous ...they are in the process of building a new movie threater in down town and the place is just booming ...if you are in the medical field you can work here no problem and live very very well the cost of housing is still very low as compared the the rest of the country 100 M buys a great house where 150 to 175 buys a mansion with real estate taxes running about 2500 per year ...the bigest negative i can say is that the locals are afraid of everything ...traffic which there is none ...crime geeeze williamsport is rated the 6 safest city in the nation...and people of color have them running into their homes and locking the door and pulling the shades...but the NEW INFLUX that be us and we are growing in numbers are urban transplants with new and fresh ideas for inproving and building our city. williamsport has the largest collection of victorian archetecture in the world all in one little city....

anyway i ramble and cant spell and hate puncuation but i think you get the meaning and idea of our town it is wonderful ...and being that it is a small city ...if you are of the mind to participate in politics or be on boards the opportunitie are endless ....we really love it ...oh by the way we live in the heart of the historic district ...in a beautiful victorian mansion ...

we sit out on our wrap around porch on a cool and balmy night and our freinds all stop by and hang out or we just watch the passers by...
we rarely lock our doors and store our car key in the ignition ...well ok not really but it is such a great neighborhood we could ...

anyway if you decide to move to williamsport look us up. melindavs@comcast.net

[SteelCityRising]

After visiting Williamsport to do my photo tour, I must agree wholeheartedly with the previous poster. Yes, Williamsport does appear to be turning itself in a more positive direction, and the architecture in town was absolutely breathtaking. I included just about every home along West Fourth Street in my photo tour, so I probably included yours as well, Melinda. Brandon Park was very nice, and I fell in love with the Flatiron Building across the street with the "Brandon Perk" coffee house (named after Central Perk from Friends, I'd assume).

My friends and I saw RENT at the Community Arts Center and had a wonderful time. I chowed down on a very good burger at the Bullfrog Brewery, and that mural on the side of the building truly took my breath away. Your downtown actually appeared to be quite healthy; there were very few vacant storefronts to be found. I visited your Chamber of Commerce to inquire about the historic district, and I found the employees there to be very helpful---one guy even chased me down the stairs to give me a brochure he found for a self-guided walking tour of the West Fourth Street area, which I fell in love with. The campuses of Lycoming College and PA College of Technology were both quite attractive as well.

Before visiting town, I could only rely on "hearsay," which was mostly negative. All I knew about Williamsport is that it had racial tensions and a high crime rate. However, after coming to town I totally fell in love with it!

May I ask you one thing though? As a local, what is up with the Gateway Arch thingy that crosses the roadway near the Lycoming Mall? Is that supposed to symbolize something?

[Dawne]

That arch near the Lycoming Mall is a local joke. The light on top turned out years ago and no one has replaced it. I think the arch was just supposed to be a piece of modern art at the main entrance to the mall.

The turnaround in Williamsport is a testament to success of the Main Street Managar program run through the PA Downtown Center and the PA Department of Community and Economic Development. All the town who have main street managers have made great strides in improving their downtowns. Some that I know of include Clearfield, Williamsport, Lewisburg, Mifflinburg - and soon Selinsgrove.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Dawne

That arch near the Lycoming Mall is a local joke. The light on top turned out years ago and no one has replaced it. I think the arch was just supposed to be a piece of modern art at the main entrance to the mall.

The turnaround in Williamsport is a testament to success of the Main Street Managar program run through the PA Downtown Center and the PA Department of Community and Economic Development. All the town who have main street managers have made great strides in improving their downtowns. Some that I know of include Clearfield, Williamsport, Lewisburg, Mifflinburg - and soon Selinsgrove.

Local joke? Sounds like Pittston's "StreetScape Master Plan" that was initiated several years ago and never completed. We now have a Kennedy Boulevard lined with historic, Victorian-era streetlights that don't match the rest of the town, which there apparently is no longer funding to complete. It also sounds to be as much of a joke as finding 100+ people to pay $300,000 for luxury waterfront penthouses in Center City Pittston after construction is completed (we've already been promised this project for several years now by local developer Daniel Siniawa, yet ground has yet to be broken on this project).

I wish that Main Street Manager program would come to Pittston, but our elected officials are much too apathetic to ever consider pursuing something like that.