Williamsport, PA

[Evergrey]

Williamsport is the hub of north-central Pennsylvania... about an hour drive northeast from State College. It has a population of 30,000 and a metro pop. of 120,000. It is the seat of Lycoming County (PA's largest county in area). Williamsport is located along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and is at the northern terminus of the Bald Eagle Valley (other notable cities in this 100+ mile valley include Lock Haven, Tyrone, Altoona and Cumberland MD). It's a rather remote city and is far from pretty much everything. It's surrounded by forests. In my opinion, Williamsport is one of the most beautiful and elegant cities in Pennsylvania!

Williamsport was laid out in 1795, incorporated as a borough in 1806 and incorporated as a city in 1866. In the late 1800s, Williamsport became known as the "Lumber Capital of the World" thanks to the high-quality lumber in the dense forests of northern PA. This lumber brought obscene amounts of wealth to the small city, which was made manifest in "Millionaire's Row". Williamsport claims that at the height of the lumber barons, it had more "millionaires per capita" than any other city in the world.

Today Williamsport is most famous for being the home of Little League Baseball, which was founded in 1939. The LL World Series is played across the river in South Williamsport (unfortunately I missed this on my tour).

Williamsport is home to Lycoming College, a small liberal arts institution that is also one of the 50 oldest colleges in the US. Penn College of Technology (affiliated with Penn State University) is on the outskirts of town.

on to the photos!

the far west end is modest but comfortable

The Williamsport CrossCutters play here. They are a Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I believe this is the original Little League field

a quintessentially Pennsylvanian streetscape

[Evergrey]

houses and factories peacefully co-exist

they just don't make factories like they used to

Millionaire's Row is a historic district west of downtown... it features many amazing mansions from the latter half of the 1800s

I was impressed with Williamsport's tree-lined streets (even downtown!)

mansion density!

the eastern entrance to Millionaire's Row

Bullfrog Microbrew! Last year I tried a smoke-flavored beer of theirs... it was very weird

I was extremely impressed with Williamsport's downtown. It's much healthier than say... Altoona's. It's very attractive and walkable. The buildings are gorgeous and very well kept. The streets are lined with trees (somewhat rare for downtowns). The buildings are occupied with a diverse array of businesses, shops and restaurants.

yes... that's the famous Grit magazine...

The Cellblock! An old jail turned nightclub

new construction downtown fits in pretty well

The Lycoming Co. courthouse was a massively disappointing hideous 1960's brick block, but here's the historical marker!

nice colour scheme

skyline!

anything that reminds me of montreal makes me happy... even if it's just BARELY

Goodnight from the City of GRIT!

[billpa]

More great pics. Nicely done...

You're right about the trees downtown, there's not enough of that in this country- although I think many cities and towns have begun to understand that people don't want their downtowns to look ugly.

RE: Bullfrog- I've been their once myself and my wife and I loved the place. I really enjoyed their IPA...so much that on the way out I bought a one gallon growler!

[ZachariahDaMan]

Wow, I'm surprised at how beautiful of a town Williamsport is. It has some gorgeous buildings and houses.

[Southernyank]

I love this city! The first time i visited it looked so gorgeous next to the mountainous back drop.

[tombarnes]

What fantastic mansions! I'm also glad to see that the Hotel Lycoming has found new life as the Genetti (now how about restoring the original name?). It looks like a well kept and vibrant little city.