Millersville University, Millersville, Lancaster County

I ended up skipping last week's post mainly on account of the weather. My longtime readers may remember that as someone with multiple chronic medical conditions, I tend to be at the mercy of the weather, and the subzero temperatures which have plagued Pennsylvania in recent weeks have really done a number on me. Fortunately, this week things are much more normal for the time of the year, so I can be more myself again.

Speaking of being myself, Zenkaikon is looming next month as it always does. I'll be making three history-themed presentations, and I'm really looking forward to sharing all of them. I think the one about samurai warriors visiting the White House during James Buchanan's presidency will be the most interesting (one of the warriors had a crush on Buchanan's niece!) but hopefully they will all be good, and if they're made available on YouTube I'll be sure to provide links for anyone interested.

In the spirit of the annual trip to Lancaster, we're heading for that county in this week's quest, thanks to some guest photography from one of my fellow congoers. I think this might actually be my first Lancaster County post set outside of the city of the same name. If you've ever heard of a "normal school" and wondered what it was, we're going to answer that question.

Packer Mansion, Jim Thorpe, Carbon County

Before we get into the meat of today's post, I wanted to share a link that was sent to me by Karen Galle, from the PHMC office. She enjoyed my description of the Richard Moore marker dedication and wanted to make sure I knew (and could tell all of you) that there's a calendar on the PHMC website, detailing upcoming dedication ceremonies. If you'd be interested in attending the unveiling of a new marker near you, be sure to take a look and mark your own calendar! Thanks, Karen!

I live very close to the point where the borders of Lehigh, Northampton, and Carbon Counties all meet. Jim Thorpe is not too far from me, and I'm rather fond of the quaint little community. We used to drive through it periodically when I was a child, on the way to visit relatives in the nearby town of Nesquehoning, and the view of Jim Thorpe as we would enter it from its southern end has always been arresting to me. Of particular interest to my childhood fancies was the enormous green house with the red roofs, nestled into the distant hills. What was this fairy tale come to life? Who lived there?