Discoverer Blog bypasses Latrobe as Pennsylvania's best small town

Move over Latrobe. The Westmoreland County city that was rated as one of the 50 most charming cities in the nation last month by the Travel Channel was looked over as the best small community in Pennsylvania by an online website.

A writer for the Denver-based Discoverer Blog selected New Hope, a small Bucks County town, located about 35 miles north of Philadelphia, as the best small town in Pennsylvania.

The writer, who goes by the name of Bradley, described New Hope as a “delight for lovers of visual and performing arts.”

The author, who is described on the website as having road-tripped across the United Kingdom, France and Spain with his family and had visited more than 40 countries, could not be reached for comment.

The author says Broadway musicals used to be performed and perfected in New Hope. The Bucks County Playhouse saw performances by George C. Scott, Grace Kelly and numerous others. He describes the town as “a vibrant community of artists, who showcase their talents at hundreds of galleries.”

Galleries are great, and Latrobe has an excellent art center, as does Saint Vincent College, but New Hope certainly can’t lay claim to serving as the summer training camp home of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the NFL team with six Super Bowl titles. That is five more than the Philadelphia Eagles.

And as quaint as New Hope is, it was not home to Fred Rogers.

New Hope is located along the 60-mile Delaware Canal, which operated along the Delaware River from Easton to Bristol. It opened in 1832 to transport anthracite coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to the eastern seaboard, according to the Delaware Canal website. When traffic slowed with the advent of the freight-carrying railroad prior to the Civil War, the state sold the canal. Still, it continued operating under a private business until 1931.

Sadly, the town gained some notoriety in October 1983 when NBC television reporter Jessica Savitch drowned when the car in which she was riding plunged into the canal. She was trapped inside the car, which overturned in 4 feet of water, police said.