Fun places to explore / historic day trips? (Pittsburgh, Erie: best towns, city hall)

[alleghenyangel]

I am relatively new to western PA and I was wondering if anyone knew of any interesting towns (small or large) to visit within an hour or two driving distance of Pittsburgh, just for the fun of exploring? I have been to Wheeling, which was a great town to explore. There were so many fabulous historic buildings downtown, antique shops, etc., and it's not too far. I also took a day trip to Ligonier and loved that town. Anyone have any other suggestions?

[BrianTH]

I lived in Hollidaysburg for a year, and it is a really neat little town if you like 19th Century homes and history--and you can basically walk every block of the historic district in an afternoon if you like. Hollidaysburg was a big deal back when it was the transfer point between the Pennsylvania Canal and the Portage Railroad, and it was also the birthplace of the Slinky. Nearby Duncansville is also a nice place for antiquing.

Hollidaysburg is about 90 miles drive east of Pittsburgh, straight out Route 22.

[Awesomo.2000]

Love Wheeling. Great Architecture. Love Hollidaysburg, as I was born there, and spend my first 13 years of my life in Duncansville right outside of it. Hollidaysburg's whole downtown is a historic district. Quaint, and beautiful town. Ligonier is also a great town to explore. You guys started off with PA's best towns.

I really like Johnstown. Depressing, but beautiful and interesting. It is an old industrial town, but has great architecture and history.

Somerset, and the Laural Highlands are great. Visit Somerset, and take a drive through the Laural Highlands to OhioPyle. Ohiopyle is Pittsburgh's getaway town with rafting, biking, hiking and other outdoor receration. It gets bussy on weekends in May-October.

There are seriously so many towns in Pennsylvania with historic architecture it isn't even funny. Like the west that is blessed with beautiful nature, we have historic and cool towns.

Erie, W. Newton, Scottdale, Mn. Pleasant, Connellsville, Uniontown, Franklin, Grove City, Oil City, Butler, Titusville, New Castle can all be seen with my one friend's photo threads on another forum. He use to post here, but left because of the sheer stupidity on this forum. If you sign up there, you can see his signature, and look at his amazing pictures to see what these towns all have.

You can look at my pbase account. pbase.com/rowjimmy144 to see what I have on there. As exploring towns is my hobby, but I don't have many PA towns on it yet.

[alleghenyangel]

Thanks a bunch! I took the train from Pgh to Philly and noticed a lot of neat towns (and beautiful scenery) along the way. What a fun trip that was. If you can endure a seven hour train ride, I recommend it.

[fleetiebelle]

Since you like architechture, the tours of Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob out near Ohiopyle are worthwhile. I liked them, and I don't even like Frank Lloyd Wright.

I also thought Greensburg was an interesting town. The Westmoreland Museum of Art is worth a look, and the main drag is definite Americana.

[Kate88]

Ditto Awesomo's suggestion for Johnstown. It's my hometown. Some things to check out, if you're interested:

Downtown- Flood Museum, Coney Island Hot Dogs, Central Park, 709 Railroad Street (art gallery/concert space), Main Street, City Hall- the outside of the building has plaques on the corner marking the depth of the flood water in all three Johnstown Floods, and of course, the Inclined Plane- steepest vehicular inclined plane in the world!

Moxham- Village Street Area is pretty cool. There's an investor who bought a whole block of the neighborhood and put businesses in, and the surrounding area is slowly beginning to revitalize. There is an antique shop, art gallery, independent cafe, etc. A few blocks up is Frederick St., with lots of beautiful, huge old homes.

West End- Johnstown BottleWorks and the Ethnic Heritage Center.

Windber- a small, old mining town bordering Johnstown. Go for a walk on it's main drag, Graham Avenue, and go to Rizzo's Italian Restaurant.

[JoeLeaphorn]

If you want something a little off the beaten path, you can take the Amtrak to Altoona and if you are lucky (or rather, if the trains are on schedule), make it back in the same day. It is $36 round trip and the trip involves the famous Horseshoe Curve (which was targeted by the Nazi's in WWII) as well as some pretty nice views of the mountains.

The train leaves Pittsburgh at 1:20 and arrives Altoona at 3:50. The return train leaves at 5:06 and gets into Pittsburgh at 8:05. It is unfortunate that this leaves you so little time in Altoona but if you are a train fan, this is not a bad day trip.

[Kate88]

Originally Posted by JoeLeaphorn

The train leaves Pittsburgh at 1:20 and arrives Altoona at 3:50. The return train leaves at 5:06 and gets into Pittsburgh at 8:05. It is unfortunate that this leaves you so little time in Altoona but if you are a train fan, this is not a bad day trip.

Only on Sunday. Monday-Saturday it leaves Pittsburgh at ... 7:20, I believe.

[Katiana]

If you have any interest in history, try Old Economy in Ambridge.

[mattjd]

There are a lot of good places around Westmoreland and Fayette. Perryopolis has the Grist Mill and the infamous Quaker Church. There are also a lot of historic areas dating to the coal mining days around Shoaf too. Around Uniontown there is Ft. Necessity and Jumonville, which deal with the start of the French and Indian War. Braddock's Grave is off of rt. 40, Searights tollhouse is on rt.40, the national road, there is also fallingwater, which is a neat place to visit.