Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

 Selinsgrove is a pretty college town on the banks of the Susquehanna River.  I've been meaning to visit the place for well over twenty years, but the opportunity never really presented itself until today.

I've got my own strange reasons for keeping Selinsgrove on my travel wish list for two decades.  They're not reasons that I'm free to divulge to the Internet.  And yet, I'd recommend the place to anyone.  As a college town and county seat, it's got a degree of erudition not found in most isolated boroughs in the center of the state.

Antique stores.  Used book stores.  And much to my surprise, art galleries and fashionable restaurants.  The people have a different look in this region; they're less Eastern European and more distinctly German.  They look cool.  Unkempt and stylish at the same time, sandy blonde, solid.

 Much like Jim Thorpe, Selinsgrove has a lot of stores catering to that trendy mix of New Age and occult tastes.  But more than that, it has traditional old Mennonites, and Amish, and Lutherans.  Like all the best churches on my big trip through the eastern half of the Keystone State, this one is Episcopal.

Governor Simon Snyder was the third governor of the state after the Revolution.  He was also a Pennsylvania German and the first non-English governor.  This is his "mansion," which is really just a large house.  It's the main reason I wanted to come to Selinsgrove.

Today, the governor's house has a brewery / restaurant in the basement, a chiropractor's office on the main floor, and a private residence on the second and third floors.  I did poke around the brew pub and even managed to stick my nose into the chiropractor's rooms--which were grandiose with enormously heavy doors, high ceilings, and massive woodwork.  I snapped a few interior shots while suspicious patients gawked.

 This plaque is located on the wall of the chiropractor's waiting room.  It seems a shame to have something as sterile as a medical facility in such a lovely old house, but there was very soothing, meditative music playing in all the rooms.

 And this state historical marker stands just outside the house.

 I do like this area.  It has huge stone barns, big farmhouses, many made of stone, and little 18th century towns with brick-faced buildings and tree-lined streets.  The Susquehanna River here is wide and flanked by wooded ridges.  I can see why people from the German Palatinate chose to settle here.  It reminded them of home.