Can you tell me abou the Grove City area? (Pittsburgh: hotels, homes)

[irishmom2]

My husband had a 3rd interview yesterday in Grove City, and I am looking for info about the area. I have a middle schooler and a boy in elementary so schools are really important. My husband is willing to drive up to 40 minutes if need be.

[LiveinPA]

Grove City is a small town, the college is probably the main thing there. Pretty rural. You'll find the basic necessities there but not much else...however, the Prime Outlets are not far and there is a whole bunch of shopping there if that matters.

Winters are notably harsher compared to Pgh once you get that far North and road maintenance tends to be poor, even on the interstate. I used to make the commute and it was rough in the winter.

Can't speak to the schools, but 40 minutes will barely put you in Butler so I doubt there is any "commute friendly" place that allow you to live outside of Grove City. Cranberry Twp. in Butler would put you about 45 minutes away in ideal conditions.

[soniqV]

Ditto everything LiveinPA says. I used to visit a friend that grew up there and I have to say I found it to be a pretty depressing place. You get the lake effect weather a lot worse than SW PA. The Outlets are basically a tourist attraction, no reason to go there for day to day shopping. I don't know firsthand about the schools, but he was homeschooled by his mother so she must have not been a fan 10-15 years ago and I doubt much has changed since then. He tells me there's a pretty bad meth problem too, but I have a feeling that's not uncommon for any of the small backwoodsy towns in NW PA.

[Copanut]

I disagree with the prior two posters, maybe they haven't been there in a while. I'm a GCC graduate and usually drive by the area once or twice a year. The downtown is doing very well considering all the shops out at the outlet malls. Name a small city that has a movie theater? The high school ranks 188 out of 693 in PA, not great, but not exactly Deliverance either. They finally broke the ban on alcohol and opened a bar downtown, nothing classy, but decent. I believe GE is a big employer there along with the malls. If you drive in from 79 you'll see a lot of new housing developments.

If you dislike snow, it might not be your cup of tea. One of my favorite memories was when Wolf Creek froze solid and we skated all through the city one not so sober night.

I'd check it out in person before deciding.

My two cents.

[LiveinPA]

Originally Posted by COPANUT

I disagree with the prior two posters, maybe they haven't been there in a while. I'm a GCC graduate and usually drive by the area once or twice a year. The downtown is doing very well considering all the shops out at the outlet malls. Name a small city that has a movie theater? The high school ranks 188 out of 693 in PA, not great, but not exactly Deliverance either. They finally broke the ban on alcohol and opened a bar downtown, nothing classy, but decent. I believe GE is a big employer there along with the malls. If you drive in from 79 you'll see a lot of new housing developments.

If you dislike snow, it might not be your cup of tea. One of my favorite memories was when Wolf Creek froze solid and we skated all through the city one not so sober night.

I'd check it out in person before deciding.

My two cents.

I drive through there regularly and do some business in the area.

As I said above, I don't know about the schools so they might be OK as you say.

I had family that went to the college and worked at the college, I've been in the area plenty.

I imagine your experience at GCC may have given you a favorable view of the place...I don't know anyone who has much bad to say about GCC. It's a nice school.

As far as living and working in Grove City, I find it a sort of desolate out of the way place with bad weather. It's not "deliverance" as you say, but there's not much there either and unfortunately it's not close to any major population centers which may mean a lot of commuting for many things.

A single bar and movie theater does not exactly excite me.

I'm not saying Grove City is a bad place, but it's not for me and I would definitely classify it as a small rural town. The population is only about 7,000 people. That's small.

As always though, the only real answer is to spend some time in the area and decide for yourself. (to the OP)

Your original post did not specify what you were looking for so it's hard to comment any further. I'm not a fan of the area, although the college is nice.

[Geeo]

I grew up in the area. It's a pretty quiet with a small town atmosphere. If you are not white, Christian, and straight, it won't be a very inviting place. The downtown is not bad. The college is the major employer, but it's a very conservative Christian school. The big scandal this spring was that they found out one of their students was a gay porn star on the side. The college had a policy against sex outside of marriage (gay or straight), no alcohol, and I don't know about dancing. My experience with the college kids was that while they are staid and conservative on the outside, they do have a drinking streak when the college authorities aren't looking. The forbidden fruit is always sweeter.

[Tinare]

I agree more with Copanut. I spent summers in Mercer when I was growing up and Mercer and Grove City are not very far apart. It's a small town area all around, but there are several nice small towns -- New Wilmington (Westminster College is there), Mercer, and Grove City are the three that come to mind for me. Slippery Rock is another college town nearby. There are some restaurants I enjoyed going to on Route 19 -- Rachel's Roadhouse and the Iron Bridge. There are the outlets if you like that sort of thing. There's Volant which has some shops and a winery. Being a city girl, I enjoyed my time up there in the summer. We spent a lot of time outdoors. We would travel to Cook Forest State Park, Conneaut Lake Park (which reopened this year) and up to Erie. It's country/small town living. There are Amish in the area. But, it's only an hour from Pittsburgh, so you aren't far away from a city. I never found it depressing, and driving through there last year, I thought it all only looked better. I put some links below to some towns/things in the area.

Volant Village Shops

Mercer County, PA-shopping, hotels, outdoor recreation, weekend getaways, golfing

The Amish Countryside in Lawrence County, PA - Lawrence County Tourist Promotion Agency of Pennsylvania

Slippery Rock, PA 16057

::Welcome to Conneaut Lake Park :: Where the Past Becomes the Future::

[LiveinPA]

A big issue you're going to have with a commute is the winter...I used to commute to Grove City every day and it's amazing how I79 can be covered in 3 inches of snow from a squall without a plow truck in sight.

On two ocassions I had to pull off and wait hours for the roads to be cleared because it just became too unsafe to drive. During that time I saw maybe 10 cars try and keep going.

It's amazing how once you hit the snow belt line around Slippery Rock you can hit a wall of snow that seems to come from nowhere. I would not go back to that commute for anything...I saw more than one terrible accident because the roads weren't cleared "up North".

[bethany12]

Great PA small town. The school district is one of the best in the state. The area is really nice and people are extremely friendly. Day trips to Ohio and Erie are easy. Grove City is just below the snow belt, so it really isn't that bad. Not everyone is looking for a crazy nightlife. Mercer County is more for families. If you are a Pittsburgh type, then stay in Pittsburgh. Here is another link for Grove City info:
Welcome to Grove City, PA. Great Shopping, Dining and Fun