Mount Gretna, PA

Mount Gretna is a borough in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The population was 242 at the 2000 census. It is a popular place in the summer, for it has a nationally-ranked juried Mt Gretna art show (third weekend in August), jazz and chamber music concerts, lectures, book reviews, and an annual tour of historic homes and cottages (1st Saturday in August). You can see the annual Mt Gretna arts calendar online.  You can visit the Mount Gretna Arts Council online as well.The community also has a roller rink, lake, open-air Mount Gretna Theater, miniature golf course, several restaurants, playgrounds, and an award-winning ice cream parlor known as the Jigger Shop. The surrounding area, which includes seven distinct neighborhoods, has a year-round population estimated at 1,500 persons. Summertime population increases to about 2,500.  There's also the popular Mount Gretna Lake recreation area.

Visitors to the center of Mount Gretna will notice something quite unusual: no lawns. The area around Mount Gretna is rolling and wooded, and this extends to the "yards" of the houses and other buildings. As one tourist noted: "it's sort of an elf village." Indeed, as one drives along the highway toward Mount Gretna, the woods stay the same, it's just that there are more and more buildings in the forest. According to many of the original deeds for houses, one could build over the property line if the area was used for a porch, and many of the lawns were sacrificed for porches.

Created in 1889 as a summer colony by Robert Habersham Coleman, an iron processing and railroad industrialist whose Cornwall Iron Furnace still stands nearby and is open to the public, the community was a pleasure stop on what was then Coleman's Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad. Between 1889 and 1916, when it was shut down, Mount Gretna was the terminus of the C&L RR line known as the Mount Gretna Narrow Gauge Railway, a tourist railway to the top of Governor Dick Mountain nearby.

In the Campmeeting areas, some of the streets are no more than footpaths. The area was laid out long before automobiles became publicly accessible, and public parking is hard to come by. The cottages are in either the "gingerbread", late Victorian, or art deco style.  The Mount Gretna Inn is also a lodging option.

The Mount Gretna Playhouse showcases a series of plays, musicals, and other special events throughout the summer season. It is also the summer performance venue for Music at Gretna, a notable chamber music and jazz series, as well as for Gretna Theater and the week-long Cicada Festival of family entertainment. The Gretna Playhouse has been under the artistic direction of professionals such as Will Stutts and showcases a series of plays, musicals, and other special events throughou the summer season. Past employees include Kris Valentine, Becca Landis, Robert Campbell, Amy Kellett, Duffey Westlake, Rick Voight, Joe Borkovich, Dallas Mease, and Aubrey Boyd.

Mount Gretna's "Hideaway Cafe" restaurant and bar is a popular spot for lunch or dinner, and a favorite late-night gathering spot for locals. The Timbers Dinner Theater and Restaurant offers summer musical revues and is open for dining year-round. Le Sorelle Cafe is open on weekends in winter and Tuesdays through Sundays from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  There's also Rebecca Bridy's Chef On The Go for busy folks.

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