Lancaster visit has sophistication plus charm

LANCASTER - This town calls to mind visions of Amish folks in horse-drawn buggies clip-clopping up the highway on their way to sell shoo-fly pie and funnel cake at a local farm stand.

But this little haven three exits west of King of Prussia on the Pennsylvania Turnpike is really no cliched anachronism out of a Harrison Ford movie. It is a vibrant mix of the arts, some history, and a bit of good food of the non-bonnet-wearing-server variety. While it is true that there is an Auntie Anne's Homecoming Parade staged every fall by the pretzel-making chain with headquarters in town, Lancaster has become a sophisticated center, well worth a weekend foray. Here are a few options:

President James Buchanan unfortunately always makes historians' short lists of "worst presidents," but he's ours - Pennsylvania's only U.S. president. His home, Wheatland, is a preserved little masterpiece on the western edge of Lancaster.

Buchanan, whose placating of the South just as anti-slavery momentum was getting going in most of the country practically cleared the road to the Civil War, spent most of his adult years in Lancaster, building Wheatland after successful foreign service - he was secretary of state and ambassador to both Russia and England. But his resoluteness to neither stop the spread of slavery nor prevent Southern states from seceding doomed the nation to civil war and devastated the Democratic Party, which elected only one president, Grover Cleveland, for the next 51 years.

Wheatland's little museum to Buchanan, in an outer small house, doesn't pull punches about the man. It talks about his unpopularity, which continued even in Lancaster after he returned home from the presidency. He was the only bachelor president, having been less than chivalrous toward an early fiancee, who died mysteriously in Philadelphia after her father broke off the engagement because of Buchanan's dubious character.

Still, Wheatland is Pennsylvania's only presidential homestead and is worth visiting as an emblem of those tough, mid-19th-century political times.

Wheatland is at 1120 Marietta Ave. Information: 717-392-8721 or www.lancasterhistory.org for special December yuletide events and tours.

The Lancaster equivalent of Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market is smack-dab in the center of downtown, just off the monument at King, Queen and Market Streets.

The terra-cotta roof of the 1889 city-owned market house shelters rows of mostly fresh-food vendors, crafts shops and small restaurants. Several of the oldest stands - Long's Horseradish, Stoner's Homegrown Vegetables, and Thomas Produce among them - have been in the same families for at least three generations. It is said to be the oldest continuously open public market in the country, although the city's Eastern Market, nearer the Convention Center along King Street, claims to date back to 1883.

The Central Market is a prime lunch venue for county workers and lawyers, and those heading out to see the art along nearby Gallery Row. It is open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Information: www.centralmarketlancaster.com.

As other small cities foundered in the post-World War II flight to the suburbs and countryside, Lancaster decided to emphasize a nascent art scene that had cropped up near the local colleges - Franklin and Marshall and the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in particular.

Though there are small museums and galleries throughout town, the best concentration of them is along the five blocks south of the College of Art and Design on and near South Prince Street that the city has dubbed Gallery Row.

Besides the galleries, most of them open on weekdays and Saturdays, Prince Street is also home to the Pennsylvania Academy of Music and the Fulton Theatre, which was opened in 1852 as the Fulton Opera House and has operated ever since. The main stage at the Fulton this month will be showing Annie and The Nutcracker, two uplifting shows for the season. For times and prices, go to www.thefulton.org.

LancasterArts sponsors a First Friday open house at member galleries, as well as other special events. For a gallery map and more information about the Lancaster arts and theater scene, go to www.lancasterarts.com.

The brewery, based in Newark, Del., has a restaurant and brew pub just across the street from Franklin and Marshall College at 781 Harrisburg Pike.

There are always at least a half-dozen special seasonal beers, most of them on tap and available in sizes down to 10 ounces for those who want to try different combinations. The food tends to be a bit more upscale than the usual college-area bar fare. There are burgers and wraps, to be sure, but also fancy salads and some seafood to go with the ribs and steaks. Oddly enough for a brew pub, there is also a gluten-free menu.

After a hearty lunch, head over to the Franklin and Marshall campus. The athletic complex is what you will first hit when you cross Harrisburg Pike, but press on to the college green, one of the prettiest you will see anywhere. F&M was, as you might imagine from the name, actually two colleges honoring Ben Franklin and John Marshall (hence the nickname, The Diplomats). Buchanan had a big hand in the merger and became the president of the board of trustees - a position he held even while president of the United States.

Overshadowed by the bigger places in Lancaster are a cadre of small museums. For the young in your group, there is the North Museum of Natural History and Science, at 400 College Ave. just off the Franklin and Marshall main campus. It has a lot of hands-on collections and exhibits spotlighting dinosaurs, the local American Indian communities, and a planetarium. Information: 717-291-3941 or www.northmuseum.org.

The Demuth Museum, 114 E. King St., is in the home and studio of early-20th-century artist Charles Demuth, with works by Demuth, a member of the Paris avant-garde scene of his time, and other special exhibitions. Next door is the Demuth Tobacco Shop, which dates back to 1770 and claims to be the oldest working tobacco shop in the country. Information: 717-299-9940 or www.demuth.org.

The Lancaster Heritage Center at 5 W. King St. operates two museums in the center of town: the Heritage Center Museum, which is in the old 18th-century City Hall and has collections of artifacts and art objects dating back to colonial times in Lancaster, and the Quilt and Textile Museum, which seeks to preserve what used to be a big industry in these parts - weaving and textile-making. Information: 717-299-6440 or www.heritagecentermuseum.org.