Best Places to Live in Southern Alleghenies
This region's four member places each carry a real, distinctive historic or cultural identity -- a railroad engineering landmark, a genuinely tragic and resilient flood history, a national 9/11 memorial, and a Hollywood legend's actual hometown -- that shapes each town's character well beyond its housing price alone.
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Learn moreAltoona: Railroad History and a Real Engineering Landmark
Altoona is the region's clear pick for movers drawn to genuine railroad heritage -- the Pennsylvania Railroad built the city specifically as a rail hub in the 1850s, and the nearby Horseshoe Curve (completed 1854, a National Historic Landmark since 1966 and National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark since 2004) remains a real, still-active rail line and a genuine train-watching destination, one of the earliest in the country. The Railroaders Memorial Museum anchors this heritage today, alongside the city's own minor-league baseball team.
Johnstown: A Real, Resilient Flood History
Johnstown carries a genuinely significant and tragic history worth knowing honestly: the Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889 killed more than 2,200 people when a poorly maintained dam failed upstream, one of the deadliest disasters in U.S. history. The city's real response -- the Johnstown Inclined Plane, built in 1891 specifically as a flood-evacuation lifeline and holding the Guinness World Record as the steepest vehicular inclined plane in the world (a 72% grade) -- has genuinely saved lives again since, carrying residents to safety during later floods in 1936 and 1977. This is the region's clearest pick for movers interested in a real, still-visible piece of American disaster and resilience history.
Somerset: Home to the Flight 93 National Memorial
Somerset County carries real, solemn national significance as the site of the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, a 2,200-acre national park honoring the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93 who died on September 11, 2001 after fighting to retake the hijacked plane -- the memorial's 93-foot Tower of Voices and its roughly 350,000 annual visitors make Somerset a genuinely significant place on the national landscape, distinct from anything else in this region. Somerset is also close to Seven Springs and Hidden Valley, two of the Laurel Highlands' major ski resorts.
Indiana: Christmas Trees, Jimmy Stewart, and a University Town
Indiana is the region's clear college-town pick, home to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), and carries two real, distinctive claims to fame: it's long been known as the 'Christmas Tree Capital of the World,' with Indiana County-grown trees shipped nationwide, and it's the actual birthplace and hometown of Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart (born May 20, 1908), commemorated today by the Jimmy Stewart Museum -- which Stewart himself asked to keep modest in size and located downtown specifically to support the local economy.
Key takeaways
- Altoona is the region's railroad-heritage pick, anchored by the historic Horseshoe Curve (National Historic Landmark, 1966) and the Railroaders Memorial Museum.
- Johnstown's real, resilient flood history -- the 1889 flood and the record-setting 1891 Inclined Plane built in response -- gives it a genuinely significant, still-visible identity distinct from the rest of the region.
- Somerset County is home to the Flight 93 National Memorial, a nationally significant site drawing roughly 350,000 visitors a year, plus proximity to the Laurel Highlands' Seven Springs and Hidden Valley ski resorts.
- Indiana combines a genuine college-town identity (IUP) with two real, distinctive claims to fame: the 'Christmas Tree Capital of the World' and Jimmy Stewart's actual hometown.
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