Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 11, 2015 10:32:55 GMT -6
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was just voted one of the 10 nerdiest spots in the country, and Joe Miller, owner of the long-lived (since 1977!) The Comic Store has done his share to keep it that way.
www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/how_nerdy_is_lancaster.html
'Nerdy is cool': Lancaster County comic book shops, museums and more land it on list
Barry Rauhauser easily rattled off facts and figures about the history of Lancaster, giving some indication why the community was recently voted one of the top 10 nerdiest small cities in the country.
"We have a 10-acre Campus of History and a presidential house, so we're nerdy squared," said the Stauffer curator and director of history on the web for LancasterHistory.org and James Buchanan's Wheatland.
He and other staff spent Monday getting ready for the upcoming President's Day weekend when Wheatland opens for the season.
The weekend typically celebrates Buchanan's successor, Abraham Lincoln, and the country's first President George Washington.
But in Lancaster County the limelight is on the 15th president - the only one to come from Pennsylvania.
Visitors to Wheatland will see the library where Buchanan penned his inaugural address and presidential memoirs among other period artifacts on the grounds.
"It's a great opportunity for someone to come take a nerdy vacation," Rauhauser joked.
Movoto, a self-proclaimed nerdy real estate blog, last week named Lancaster 10th on a list of the nerdiest small cities in the U.S.
Lancaster is one of the nerdiest cities in the U.S. Who knew?
The area's high number of museums bested that of other comparable cities, according to the website, and Lancaster also has a strong showing of comic book shops and bookstores.
The Museum Council of Lancaster County has about 20 member sites, according to its President Elizabeth Bertheaud.
Bertheaud also serves as director of the Ephrata Cloister, a religious institute founded in 1732 by a German immigrant.
All of Lancaster's museums work collaboratively to promote each other and are gearing up for a busy spring and summer season, which usually attracts school groups and tourists, she said.
If Lancaster is nerdy, it's nothing new, Bertheaud said.
The cloister alone gets about 16,000 visitors a year, and all of the older museums have seen steady foot traffic for decades.
"We have a regular audience that comes here...and the up-and-coming young professionals who are moving into the city. We offer such a wide variety of cultural experiences. Does that make us nerdy? I don't know," Bertheaud said.
The owner of Lancaster's oldest comic book store thinks it does - and he's proud of the designation.
The Comic Store has served local nerds since 1977 - a rare tenure in an industry that has struggled with readership.
"It's cool Lancaster can support a business like this for so long. Yeah, we're nerdy, but nerdy is cool, right?" said Joe Miller, owner of the store.
Miller bought the store in 1985 and in 1989 moved it to its current address at 28 McGovern Ave.
"We have a strong regular group of customers. There are people who have always grown up with this store," he said.
"Yeah, we're nerdy, but nerdy is cool, right?" - Joe Miller, owner of The Comic Store in Lancaster
And now The Comic Store is selling to its next generation of nerds: local kids.
In the last 18 months, the store has been selling a lot more comic books aimed at children, such as Disney adaptations, Angry Birds, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo, Sonic the Hedgehog and more, Miller said.
The store also sells collectibles, novelty items and merchandise desired by some "pretty cool nerds," he said.
While The Comic Store does occasionally see shoppers "who just breeze through," the county's tourism bureau doesn't have plans to create a nerd tour anytime soon.
Discover Lancaster was rebranded Jan. 1 from it's previous title, Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau to let people know "all there is to do here, Amish country and beyond," said spokesman Joel Cliff.
While the museums fit into the area's history and heritage as one of the top five reasons people visit Lancaster County, the organization isn't jumping on the recent classification.
"I think why folks come here and enjoy exploring here is because Lancaster has a lot of good stories to tell, from Landis Valley to the Railroad Museum," Cliff said. "I don't think nerdy is the right moniker. I think we have cultural interests of all sorts. It would surprise people how much we have here."
www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2015/02/how_nerdy_is_lancaster.html
'Nerdy is cool': Lancaster County comic book shops, museums and more land it on list
Barry Rauhauser easily rattled off facts and figures about the history of Lancaster, giving some indication why the community was recently voted one of the top 10 nerdiest small cities in the country.
"We have a 10-acre Campus of History and a presidential house, so we're nerdy squared," said the Stauffer curator and director of history on the web for LancasterHistory.org and James Buchanan's Wheatland.
He and other staff spent Monday getting ready for the upcoming President's Day weekend when Wheatland opens for the season.
The weekend typically celebrates Buchanan's successor, Abraham Lincoln, and the country's first President George Washington.
But in Lancaster County the limelight is on the 15th president - the only one to come from Pennsylvania.
Visitors to Wheatland will see the library where Buchanan penned his inaugural address and presidential memoirs among other period artifacts on the grounds.
"It's a great opportunity for someone to come take a nerdy vacation," Rauhauser joked.
Movoto, a self-proclaimed nerdy real estate blog, last week named Lancaster 10th on a list of the nerdiest small cities in the U.S.
Lancaster is one of the nerdiest cities in the U.S. Who knew?
The area's high number of museums bested that of other comparable cities, according to the website, and Lancaster also has a strong showing of comic book shops and bookstores.
The Museum Council of Lancaster County has about 20 member sites, according to its President Elizabeth Bertheaud.
Bertheaud also serves as director of the Ephrata Cloister, a religious institute founded in 1732 by a German immigrant.
All of Lancaster's museums work collaboratively to promote each other and are gearing up for a busy spring and summer season, which usually attracts school groups and tourists, she said.
If Lancaster is nerdy, it's nothing new, Bertheaud said.
The cloister alone gets about 16,000 visitors a year, and all of the older museums have seen steady foot traffic for decades.
"We have a regular audience that comes here...and the up-and-coming young professionals who are moving into the city. We offer such a wide variety of cultural experiences. Does that make us nerdy? I don't know," Bertheaud said.
The owner of Lancaster's oldest comic book store thinks it does - and he's proud of the designation.
The Comic Store has served local nerds since 1977 - a rare tenure in an industry that has struggled with readership.
"It's cool Lancaster can support a business like this for so long. Yeah, we're nerdy, but nerdy is cool, right?" said Joe Miller, owner of the store.
Miller bought the store in 1985 and in 1989 moved it to its current address at 28 McGovern Ave.
"We have a strong regular group of customers. There are people who have always grown up with this store," he said.
"Yeah, we're nerdy, but nerdy is cool, right?" - Joe Miller, owner of The Comic Store in Lancaster
And now The Comic Store is selling to its next generation of nerds: local kids.
In the last 18 months, the store has been selling a lot more comic books aimed at children, such as Disney adaptations, Angry Birds, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Scooby-Doo, Sonic the Hedgehog and more, Miller said.
The store also sells collectibles, novelty items and merchandise desired by some "pretty cool nerds," he said.
While The Comic Store does occasionally see shoppers "who just breeze through," the county's tourism bureau doesn't have plans to create a nerd tour anytime soon.
Discover Lancaster was rebranded Jan. 1 from it's previous title, Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau to let people know "all there is to do here, Amish country and beyond," said spokesman Joel Cliff.
While the museums fit into the area's history and heritage as one of the top five reasons people visit Lancaster County, the organization isn't jumping on the recent classification.
"I think why folks come here and enjoy exploring here is because Lancaster has a lot of good stories to tell, from Landis Valley to the Railroad Museum," Cliff said. "I don't think nerdy is the right moniker. I think we have cultural interests of all sorts. It would surprise people how much we have here."