Pennsylvania Railroad Shops, Altoona, Blair County

Hello and welcome to the second-to-last MQ adventure for 2025! I still can't believe this has been the seventh year of quests, and I really appreciate how many of you have joined me for my adventures in history. I have one more regular post lined up for next week, and then in December I'll be doing the annual wrap-up where we look at statistics and fun facts. After that, as my longtime readers know, I'll be taking the rest of December off because of my day job being in retail.

This week we're heading back out west to Blair County to look at trains. I do like trains.

Special Edition: Solve a Puzzle or Two

As I mentioned not long ago, I'm starting to run through my hoard of collected markers, and I still have to get through the rest of November. I'm hoping to make a run to either Schuylkill or Bucks County in the next few days to grab one or two, which should give me enough to finish the year. 

I've also been a little under the weather - rather more literally than most people. The temperatures have taken a decided downturn in the last few days, and that's having its usual consequences for my pain levels. I'm used to this, but it doesn't lend itself much to getting a lot of things done, and I'm still trying to wrap up the Carbon County book. It's gray, it's cold, and the news is giving everybody headaches.

So, all things considered, I thought I'd do something a little fun this week to try to brighten all of our spirits. I can't promise it'll work, but I'm trying. If you like puzzles, I think you'll enjoy this.

Falkner Swamp Reformed Church, Gilbertsville, Montgomery County

Welcome to November! Louisa May Alcott, in her novel Little Women, had the character of Meg remark that "I do believe November is the most disagreeable month of the year." So far, it hasn't been that bad - the fall colors are still quite brilliant around here - but it has been rather on the blustery side. My neighborhood has lost power multiple times in the past week due to the wind, which is not at all usual for us. I'm hoping that it will continue to be tolerable for a little while longer, at least, because I've got to get out of here and collect some more markers to get me through the winter. I only have the rest of November to go for the blog, and then I'll be taking my usual December hiatus after detailing the year's interesting facts, but I want to be prepared for January and February with a decent stockpile.

For this week, though, we're going to take a ride down to Montgomery County, where I had stumbled across one of my favorite things to include in this blog. I love talking about subjects from colonial times, and especially churches from the time period, because they tend to have really unique stories behind them. This one is no exception.

Reading Terminal & Market, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

We're bidding farewell to the most beautiful month of the year in just a couple short days, and meanwhile sending my prayers for those being affected by Hurricane Melissa. I never saw a weather radar map which colored a storm black until this, that was really bizarre. 

For this week's quest, I have a confession. I've never actually been inside of this building, which is why I don't have any pictures of the interior to share. But you can see lots of pictures at the various sources I've linked at the bottom, and it's most certainly on my list of places to see in Philadelphia "someday". (I have a lot of things scheduled in that very nebulous timeframe.) I got the marker a few years back, when my mother and my BFF Andrea and I took a double-decker bus tour around the city to see different locations, and today I'm going to tell you about what goes on inside.

Friedenshuetten, Wyalusing, Bradford County

The fall colors are glorious throughout the commonwealth, though as I write this the weather is on the dreary side. I'm baffled to realize that I have one more blog post after this and then the month of October is done; it's like I blinked and it was over.

We haven't talked about the Moravians in a couple of minutes, so I thought I'd rectify that with a visit to what could be regarded as a lost settlement. I'm very low on images for this one, which is something I'm going to need to change eventually, but at least I can tell you a very interesting story.

Celestia, Laporte, Sullivan County

A week later than it should be, but we have a blog post! The weather recently in my corner of the commonwealth has had a negative impact on my health, particularly the coastal storm that threatened to dump a few inches of rain on us. (It didn't, but I still felt it coming.) So there was no way I was going to get a post up last Wednesday, and between one thing and another I just never got to it during the rest of the week either. But I'm better this week, so it's back to business as usual.

I'm sure that my contact Melly at the Sullivan County Historical Society has been waiting for a new post from her neighborhood. She was a wonderful tour guide when Kevin and I visited a few months ago for his birthday, and I think it's time I shared more of what we learned on that trip. Pennsylvania has its share of ghost towns and abandoned settlements, and Sullivan County in particular has a few, one of which has a PHMC marker. It has a pretty unique history. I don't currently have photos to share, as we weren't able to visit during our trip, but I hope to make a return journey to Sullivan County and see it then.

Philip Ginter, Summit Hill, Carbon County

Happy October!

I'm still working on the Carbon County marker book - I expect to be finished before too much longer. So it takes up a lot of my mental energy because I'm honestly quite excited for it. (To quote from the recently released trailer for the back half of the Wicked movie, "I'm obsessulated.")

That being the case, here's another preview for my faithful blog readers, revisiting an earlier post. As with the previous post I've done of this sort, this is not the entire chapter, just a truncated version. I have to save some of the good stuff so people will buy the book, after all!