Portland Cement, Lehigh and Northampton Counties

My thoughts today are with two friends who are in the hospital; one of them I won't name out of respect for their family's privacy, but the other (who is quite open about it on his social media) is the Hometown Historian. Jon's always been a good friend to this blog, so please keep a good thought for him as he undergoes a difficult but necessary procedure.

I'm having trouble getting this week's blog post started through no particular fault of my own. No, it's the children who are to blame - my two younger cats, Kashi and Sashi, are living up to the nickname my friend Rachel gave them. She calls them "the chaos babies" and they keep trying to sit on my laptop keyboard. This is making it difficult to write, because I keep having to fix the 'additions' they're making to the post. But the history must go on, I suppose.

For this second quest of 2026, I'm staying relatively close to home and looking at the background of one of the Lehigh Valley's resident industries. I already touched on it quite some time ago, when the blog was still pretty new and I still lived within walking distance of the First Cement marker. The blog and I have since moved elsewhere, but then again, so has the cement industry.

Wyoming County

Happy New Year!

It's only been a week since we bade farewell to 2025, but the weather has made it feel like much longer. Today isn't so bad, nor was yesterday; the previous several days, however, with their painfully low temperatures and biting winds, were another story. I was not built for winter and have not been feeling my best.

Still, I'm here and I'm looking forward to a new year of blogging. It's going to be a busy one, with the books and other important things happening. The country is turning 250 years old! Naturally, Pennsylvania is a big part of that, so I'll be doing my best to participate where I can.

But for today, a blog post. Last summer, as my readers from back then may recall, my emotional support silly man and I took a road trip up north for his birthday, and one of our stops was the seat of Wyoming County. We admired their beautiful courthouse and collected a few markers and here's some of what I learned as a result.

2025 Retrospective, 2026 Plans

It wasn't my intention to entirely skip the last week of November and dive straight into the yearly wrap-up, but it also wasn't my intention to come down with a sinus infection. Between that, the holiday, and the usual hullabaloo of working retail on Black Friday weekend, there just wasn't enough time for blogging. I hope all of my American readers had a great Thanksgiving, and that my handful of international followers enjoyed a very pleasant Thursday.

We are now entering the last year in which I can describe my age as "fortymumble" and I haven't quite decided how I feel about that. But one thing remains certain, and that is that I'm still having a lot of fun with this blog, so rest assured that it's still going to be a thing in the new year. With that, let's dive into the annual recap and see which of this year's offerings you all liked the best.

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.