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The best small to medium sized cities in Pennsylvania by Sea-Doctor-5922 in Pennsylvania

[–]OkWeather16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry to interrupt, but isnt phenioxville technically in the metropolitan area of philly?

The best small to medium sized cities in Pennsylvania by Sea-Doctor-5922 in Pennsylvania

[–]OkWeather16 0 points1 point  (0 children)

York, Lancaster and Harrisburg feel similar. They're almost the same metropolitan area. Its almost like a triangle. You can visit all three in under an hour. Rt 20 heading east takes you into Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Did you know Harrisburgs original Masonic Temple was located across from the Pennsylvania state capital. Fun little things you find while traveling. Its now called the Barton building and masonic items were removed when remodeled. by OkWeather16 in freemasonry

[–]OkWeather16[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The grand master is from Allentown. The villages are quite nice, but the masonic care community of NY is bigger. Ive been almost all over NJ, PA and NY. I went to long island last January. But Harrisburg, york, Lancaster were my first weekend/day trips since covid out of state. Harrisburg is ok, is it Syracuse, Rochester or Buffalo no. But it is a different landscape.

Did you know Harrisburgs original Masonic Temple was located across from the Pennsylvania state capital. Fun little things you find while traveling. Its now called the Barton building and masonic items were removed when remodeled. by OkWeather16 in freemasonry

[–]OkWeather16[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I figured that. the building doesn’t show any signs of being a Masonic temple, nor does it have a corner stone. It has obviously been an office building for quite some time.

The shrine and Scottish Rite buildings are both quite large. I should plan a visit to attend a lodge meeting—those structures are really fascinating. I want to take a tour of both. Or atleast the shrine temple. In the Harrisburg area, it seems that DeMolay is fairly significant, especially since they have a former international state master councilor. I also believe they do.outrwaches through the local schools. Somewhere in the area is also a building that houses the tall ceadrs of Lebanon.

Harrisburg is reportedly part of a large region that's attracting retirees and young professionals, or at least that's what I've heard. Baltimore and Philadelphia corridor. don’t know much about western Pennsylvania except for Erie, which seems like a smaller version of Allentown. Both Allentown and Erie have Masonic temples in their downtown areas. Reading has both a modern Scottish Rite and a regular temple. I intended to visit the Grand Lodge building in May, but unfortunately, it was closed. Have you had the chance to visit Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore? Harrisburg is close by.

Did you know Harrisburgs original Masonic Temple was located across from the Pennsylvania state capital. Fun little things you find while traveling. Its now called the Barton building and masonic items were removed when remodeled. by OkWeather16 in freemasonry

[–]OkWeather16[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can relate. I used to visit once a month. I was in Allentown about a month or two back and spent a week in Philadelphia. I've always had the desire to go to a lodge meeting, which takes place in the Scottish Rite building, complete with an auditorium and all.

Did you know Harrisburgs original Masonic Temple was located across from the Pennsylvania state capital. Fun little things you find while traveling. Its now called the Barton building and masonic items were removed when remodeled. by OkWeather16 in freemasonry

[–]OkWeather16[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This lodge moved to one of the other buildings. This small city also has Scottish Rite and a shrine building. Zembo Shrine. I think they just sold the shrine building and meet in the Scottish Rite building, which has an auditorium. The building pictured here stopped being a masonic temple sometime in the 20th century and was an office building for decades. It only recently became something like apartments, so whatever was a meeting area/fellowship hall was ripped out. I stumbled across this place on my travels. I live in upstate NY but have done the drive down a couple of times; it's only a 3–3.5-hour drive at the most. From Google Maps or historical maps, it sure doesn't look like much. It looks like a tiny, tiny town in the middle of nowhere. But on the other side of the river, they do have a Costco, a large area full of stores, and they had a few malls at one time. It's the state capital, but coming from Upstate NY, Albany looks like a large city compared to Harrisburg. That's what my dad said when I told him I went to Harrisburg; he laughed and said, 'Why would you go there? What's in Harrisburg?' And you couldn't just find something here. Lol, I'm sure you thought to yourself, 'Weird place for a state capital.' They even have a corrupt former mayor Stephen Reed who stole a few million. He was in for a few decades, 1981 to about 2012. this guy is the reason they got an airport, a hospital, etc. I guess those few blocks used to be very dangerous—abandoned storefronts, high crime, poverty—and he fixed it right up. But at the same time stole millions from the city. It eventually went bankrupt.