houtzdale (Altoona, State College, Clearfield: crime, houses, high school)

[findinghope]

would you ever live or work there? i had never even heard of it, and there isn't much info online about it. we got a possible offer and want to know the whole truth--good or bad.

if you had to work there where would you live?
thanks

[Weedhopper59]

I grew up in Houtzdale and still own a home there. H'dale is a small town with not much to do, if your coming from a city be prepared for culture shock. If you like hunting, fishing or 4 wheeling you'll love it! If your used to dining or shopping, well be prepared to drive, nearest Wal-Mart 18 miles in Clearfield, closest McDonalds 12 miles in Philipsburg any nice dining or shopping is in Altoona 25 miles southwest or State College 25 miles south east.

H'dale is a small town with no industry other than the state prison, it used to be a coal mining community full of Polish and Ukranian people. The high school has a graduating class of about 90 lids or less.

Most of the homes in town are at least 50 years old and many are 100, my house is 2 miles outside of town in one of the many villages within a 5 mile radius. If your looking for some land with a house go outside of town, most homes are in the 50k to 100k range and I'd be surprised if there was 5 houses that are worth 200k.

No crime to speak of, don't even have a police force. We used to have a part time policeman but they got rid of him 10 years ago and the state police ride through and patrol.

Hope this helps.....

[findinghope]

wow! thanks
the only info i found was a youtube video---and it didnt look good. i mean "main street" was completely dead! it looked like things were falling apart. is there something going on with the coal mining industry---cause the man who took the video was talking about it---but i dont know what he meant....is some company trying to come in and do something to the town? or get rid of most of the buildings? cause that is what it sounded like.

[Weedhopper59]

I've seen that video on YouTube and I am sorry to say it is pretty accurate of the downtown area. What used to be downtown when I weas growing up is only three blocks long. About 12 years ago a fire broke out on one side of Main St. and burned down about 80 percent of the one side of one block on Main St. Four of five years later another fire broke out and burned down half of another block on Main St. (both were blessings in disguise)

All the coal operations n the area shut down about 10 years ago, most of the land in the area is still owned by the coal companies and or their families. Most of the coal companies were small locally onwed strp mines that got run out by big government regulations.

Houtzdale was in it's hay days in the 1930-1960's, today it is just small town America struggling to keep afloat. Most of the people have lived there all their lives, both my mother and father's families immigrated to the US around 1900 and settled in the coal fields of Houtzdale and lived there until they died.

It used to be a very close knit family oriented community when I was growing up, I have lost touch with the day to day goings on since I've been gone for 30 years and don't get back much. But it is still home and I feel welcomed by all when I do go back.....

[badguykc]

You can do much better than moving to central PA.