EALLSVILLE, Pennsylvania—If you are driving too fast, you’ll miss her. It often happens at the pitch of the rolling Appalachian Mountain, where she has stood for nearly 100 years: the statue of a sturdy frontier woman holding a rifle in one arm and an infant in another, with another child clinging to her long skirt. […]
UMONVILLE, Pennsylvania—What happened here 266 years ago had repercussions so profound they changed the course of world history abruptly and irreversibly. A disputed moment occurred that led to the French and Indian War, the first true world war that would drag on for seven years, draw blood on five continents and have costs that would […]
UTLER, Pennsylvania—Last Monday was supposed to be a celebration, a coming together across the ages and across the country to mark the day “Ghostbusters” debuted in 1984, a film that made movie executives cringe but won the hearts of moviegoers. The film was going to be shown at drive-in theaters from coast to coast. John […]
NILES, Ohio—Truth be told, neither the home William McKinley was born in nor the front porch 55 miles west of his birthplace from which he conducted his presidential campaign exist anymore. The small, wood-plank-sided home here on state Route 46 is a replica of where the 25th president of the United States was born. The […]
RISTOL, Tennessee—There is not one thing in the jeans, flannel-lined jackets, denim jackets, overalls, shirts, carpenter pants, custom uniforms or masks produced by L.C. King Manufacturing that is not made in America. Nothing—not even the threads or the rivets. “All the components, the raw materials, are purchased in the United States and are actually manufactured […]
RISTOL, Tennessee—April’s race weekend came and went with no one filling the steep stadium stands of one of the largest sports venues in the world; no one standing proudly to sing “The Star-Spangled-Banner”; and no hushed anticipation before the most famous words in motor sports, followed by the roar of the engines that power some […]
LLENTOWN, Pennsylvania—President Donald Trump, speaking to the Washington Examiner ahead of an event at a medical supply facility in this key swing state, took aim at Joe Biden’s mental faculties, at one point claiming his Democratic challenger “has absolutely no idea what’s happening.” Trump was reacting to news that Biden had teamed up with former […]
BELLE VERNON, Pennsylvania—As Ron Necciai recalls, the first two batters both went down in strikes. The third guy got lucky—sort of. The ball got away from the catcher, who quickly got the batter out at first. It was May 13, 1952, a cold, damp Tuesday night for 1,100 people at Shaw Stadium in the Blue […]
OHIOPYLE, Pennsylvania—Like most places in the United States, this tiny patch of a town is struggling to stay afloat. Like most places, people here are trying to help others out. And like most places, those who live and work here wonder whether their community will ever be the same. Vicki Marietta’s family has been in […]
MIDDLETOWN, Md.—There is an argument to be made that the coronavirus pandemic could change the food supply chain for the long term. It may disrupt across the board our reliance on distant producers, processing plants and large chain grocery stores. In the process, it would connect many of us to local food in the same […]
ROTHERSVALLEY TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania—Anyone who drives along the narrow, winding township road just off of U.S. Route 219 immediately finds themselves whisked back in time, if only for a moment, as their car enters the Burkholder Bridge. The 150-year-old structure has cherry-red shingles; a charming sign bearing its name across the arc of the roof; and […]
HAMBERSBURG, Pennsylvania—It is early Sunday morning along one of the few congested stretches of the Lincoln Highway when an empty parking lot below the familiar cheery yellow sign for the local Waffle House catches the eye. The 24-hour diner chain, born in the Atlanta suburbs 65 years ago and now spreading across 25 states with […]
ITTSBURGH—On Friday, James Coen is folding and unfolding, arranging and rearranging the piles of colorful St. Patrick’s Day T-shirts he has displayed on folding tables outside one of the three sports retail stores he owns. The stores are all large historic buildings with big, shiny, planked hardwood floors, all snuggled in a three-block radius between […]
ITTSBURGH—Five years ago, the sad goodbye to an icon began when Macy’s decided to close its flagship location in downtown Pittsburgh. The void, alas, still remains. For most of that building’s storied 110-plus-year-old life, until Macy’s took it 15 years ago, it was Kaufmann’s department store: a place where parents, whether they were working-class or […]