Walking Tour of Johnstown's Amazing Architecture

I have still never visited Johnstown but it always looks fascinating from the train, dramatic, Western PA landscape, old steel mills, churches and even an incline!

The Johnstown Area Heritage Association (JAHA), has a very in depth walking tour of some of downtown's historic and diverse buildings.

Once again, I will plug the idea of hosting a single day or weekend of tours so people can really discover these buildings from the inside.

A Walking Tour of Johnstown

Images From Polish Hill Jane's Walk Coming Soon

Um yeah, just like the two book reviews I promised. But seriously, it went far better than we could have expected in it's first year. By great luck, the neighborhood that stepped up happens to likely be Pittsburgh's best example of small scale grass roots oriented bootstrapping almost certain to have won Jane's favor. Not surprisingly, Terry Doloughty the Polish Hill Civic Association president and lifelong resident who guided the tour had read the book. Read The Post Gazette story.

Ms. Jacobs wrote that successful neighborhoods "are not discrete units. They are physical, social and economic continuities -- small scale to be sure but small scale in the sense that the lengths of fibers making up a rope are small scale."

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities" became a classic that masses of sociology, public policy and political science students read. An attack on urban planning of the day, the book was a foundation for the New Urbanist movement.

The national non-profit Project for Public Spaces called it "perhaps the most influential American text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of urban planners and activists."

"All the things she talked about is what we are doing: sidewalk cafes, street trees, merchants groups, festivals," said architect David Lewis, one of the area's most venerable advocates of community-building urban design.

If you have thoughts, insight or images you want to share about art, music, film, urban design, architecture, transit or history in the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown, Erie, Morgantown, Akron, Canton region--Cleveburgh, email me diggingpitt@gmail.com. We can hook you up to post.

This is not Hyper Local media, but regional media seeking local viewpoints.