Lancaster, Pennsylvania City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Lancaster, Pennsylvania Travel Guide has been your connection to Lancaster's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Historic & Cultural Outings
 You might need several days to get the full taste of all this wonderful city offers. A great place to start is The Historic Lancaster Walking Tour. Begun during the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, the tours were so successful that they are now a ‘must’ for anyone visiting Lancaster. After an introductory presentation, costumed guides conduct a walking tour of historic downtown Lancaster. Likewise, Wheatland, estate home of President James Buchanan, and the Rock Ford Plantation, home of Gen. Edward Hand (adjutant general to George Washington) offer excellent historic presentations. Lancaster Historical Society is one of the finest in the nation and sits adjacent to the Wheatland Estate.
For insight of the African American experience during the Civil War, be sure to visit the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Serving as a "station" of the Underground Railroad, the church offers “Living the Experience,” a poignant living history production of the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania.
The Heritage Center Museum features regional 18th and 19th century furniture, quilts, silver, fine arts and other media, which preserve and interpret Lancaster County's history. The Museum is housed in two historic buildings: the former City Hall of Lancaster and the Lodge 43 Masonic Lodge designed by famed architect C. Emelen Urban built in 1795-97. The Heritage Center maintains permanent collections, stages annual exhibitions and conducts extensive educational programs, as well as offers an enjoyable cultural gift shop. The strong traditions of this culture of watch making, furniture crafts, quilting, and the creative visual arts still flourish through the city in its many galleries on Prince and Queen Streets, as well throughout the county.
The oldest group of Old Order Amish and Mennonites, consisting of about 18,000 people, live in Lancaster County. There are a number of ways to become acquainted with the Amish/Mennonite ways of life. A horse-and-buggy tour through their picturesque farmland is a wonderful place to start, as well as visiting local farmers’ markets that operate throughout the year on regular ‘market days’ in a number of venues within the county.
Time seems to stand still as you pass by orderly Amish/Mennonite farms with energy-producing windmills, hand-made clothing and quilts fluttering gracefully in the breeze, and exquisite family gardens offering the abundance of the “garden spot of Pennsylvania”. Numerous B&B’s offer personally cooked breakfasts and comfortable lodging with beds kept warm by authentic Amish quilts, yet with all the amenities for the modern discerning traveler.
There are outstanding venues which provide further information about the Amish/Mennonite ways of life: The Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society, Landis Farm Museum (the largest authentic PA Dutch Living History Village interpreting late 1700’s German customs), the Amish Information Center, and The Amish Village (an authentic working farm that offers a guided tour, which includes farm animals, handmade crafts, and it’s beautiful centrally located home. The Amish Experience offers bus tours of the surrounding Amish farmlands, a mouth watering all-you-can-eat family style meal, tours of a designated "Heritage Site" Old Order Amish House, and the spectacular F/X Theater production of "Jacob's Choice" about the ways of the plain folks of Lancaster County.
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