German culture in America

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

I saw an ad for this place and it made me think of this thread:

Stoudtburg Village - Adamstown, PA



https://stoudtburgvillage.com/

If Americans weren't so car-brained I feel like you could adjust the layout a bit and make it more interesting

lol, yeah its all sitting in a parking lot and turned inside out. the chinese probably do this kind of thing better.

[pj3000]

I used to go to the Stoudt's Brewery and the restaurant, as well as their antique mall. The whole place was a rather interesting "German" complex, and they were early architects of the American craft brewing movement back in the 80s and 90s.

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

I saw an ad for this place and it made me think of this thread:

Stoudtburg Village - Adamstown, PA

[mrnyc]

ohio's interesting rural land of the cross tipped churches region -- because usa rural areas typically aren't catholic --




THE LAND OF THE CROSS TIPPED CHURCHES: NEW SERIES ON THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNITIES OF THE NORTHERN ARCHDIOCESE

The Catholic Telegraph / June 5, 2020
by Susie Bergman

When traveling in the most northern, rural part of the diocese, it’s hard not to notice the flat, fertile farmland and numerous spires that adorn the sky. Growing up in this area, we always took prideful humor in the fact that most towns consisted of only two important things: a bar and a church. It’s a lighthearted homage to the German Catholic heritage that instilled a strong work ethic within the area and helped develop the traditional values still visible today.


more:
https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com...hdiocese/66874

[ColDayMan]

^That is also Ohio's "reddest" area, politically. Dunno if rural German Catholics are supposed to be that Republican...but those folks are.

[pj3000]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

ohio's interesting rural land of the cross tipped churches region -- because usa rural areas typically aren't catholic --

Depends on where in the usa you're talkin' about... as the state to the right would beg to differ about what's typical.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Depends on where in the usa you're talkin' about... as the state to the right would beg to differ about what's typical.

Yeah. While it's true that Catholics tend to cluster in metro areas relative to national averages, there are still plenty of rural counties in the US where Catholics are a plurality.


Source: https://aguyinthepew.blogspot.com/20...tates.html?m=1

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

^That is also Ohio's "reddest" area, politically. Dunno if rural German Catholics are supposed to be that Republican...but those folks are.

i know, from my spouse’s irish catholic cop father who’s parents are from that area to going around there myself was the first time i had ever met republican catholics. i was very puzzled by it.

in any event, even if rural catholics are more common than expected, its still a famous german catholic rural area.

[Centropolis]

Pretty normal for most rural towns in the (midwestern) part of Missouri to all have Catholic churches alongside Protestant churches - the heavily German Catholic rural areas follow the Missouri River west from St. Louis (settlement pre-dates the railroad) and the Mississippi River south from St. Louis - the southern "branch" of the rural German Catholic area abruptly ends at a specific hill (I think called Benton Hill) that drops down towards the Missouri part of the "delta"...where the south, cotton, rice, and rural African American communities begin. It's probably one of the most stark dividers between the midwest and south that you can find other than the Ohio River...and even then its usually not that abrupt except in the lowest reaches of the Ohio Valley. And if you go "inland"/west from the German/Franco settled Mississippi River valley you hit Protestant Appalachia-West fairly quickly.

[Centropolis]

Side tangent: but the intact (highly catholic) Québécois redoubt of Ste. Geneviève, Missouri is generally speaking German occupied, lol.


https://missourilife.com


www.nps.gov

[bilbao58]

This grave marker in Castroville, near San Antonio, has "Geboren im Alsace, Gestorben zu Castroville" painted on it.


Photo mine.

[JManc]

German culture is/ was pretty big in Texas especially in the Hill Country; New Braunfels, Schlitterbahn, Spoetzl Brewery, Luckenbach, Gruene Hall, etc.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

lol, yeah its all sitting in a parking lot and turned inside out. the chinese probably do this kind of thing better.

I know this looks weird and inauthentic, but the rural parts of SE PA are chock full of very picturesque small cities and villages. Adamstown PA has an actual downtown that is very pretty and not unlike this, just genuinely old.

This list goes on an on, but such towns include:
Bethlehem
Emmaus
Adamstown
Hamburg
Lebanon
Lancaster
Lititz
Columbia
Manheim
Elizabethtown
Strasburg
York
Mechanicsburg
Carlisle
Gettysburg
etc etc etc

Basically the second ring counties outside of Philadelphia's suburbs (Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Lancaster, York, Adams) are rolling countryside dotted with towns and small cities that would be tourist destinations in and of themselves in many other parts of the country.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown

I know this looks weird and inauthentic, but the rural parts of SE PA are chock full of very picturesque small cities and villages. Adamstown PA has an actual downtown that is very pretty and not unlike this, just genuinely old.

This list goes on an on, but such towns include:
Bethlehem
Emmaus
Adamstown
Hamburg
Lebanon
Lancaster
Lititz
Columbia
Manheim
Elizabethtown
Strasburg
York
Mechanicsburg
Carlisle
Gettysburg
etc etc etc

Basically the second ring counties outside of Philadelphia's suburbs (Northampton, Lehigh, Berks, Lebanon, Lancaster, York, Adams) are rolling countryside dotted with towns and small cities that would be tourist destinations in and of themselves in many other parts of the country.

Pennsylvania is a *very* unexplored state for me but I know that it is absolutely brimming with wonderful American towns and villages. I've been traveling to the area around the OH, WV, SW PA border a bit for work lately and the bones of ostensibly "normal" or even obviously depressed towns really become robust as you move towards Pittsburgh. You start to see brick rowhousing and walkups/apartment buildings that are generally only reserved for larger metropolitan core cities (if they are lucky) further west along the I-70 corridor.

[pj3000]

German Lutherans initally immigrated to Philadelphia at the invitation of William Penn in the late 1600s, and made Pennsylvania the most German of the original 13 colonies.

Post Amercian Revolution, German (and Polish) Catholic immigrants played a major role in colonizing the rugged lands of the early American frontier in Pennsylvania. The rural German Catholic population became organized and established the nation's first Benedictine monastery, St. Vincent Abbey, in Latrobe, and the first Benedictine convent, St. Joseph Monastery in Marienstadt (St. Mary's), the town itself founded by the German Catholic Brotherhood. They also founded the surrounding Benzinger Township. St. Mary's/Benzinger Twp was one of the first fully German settlements in America.

German Catholics didn't just build churches in rural Pennsylvania, they built Catholic institutional complexes that dominated the culture of the countryside and exist to this day. That is why the novelty of a "land of cross-tipped churches" and the notion that Catholics are typically rare in rural areas are completely foreign to me.

[pj3000]

[Centropolis]

My 18th century protestant German ancestors (via port of British Philadelphia) went to Virginia very early on, then Indiana. I know less about my German ancestors than my late 17th century British ancestors (often its the reverse) and don't have access to all the family records - there is a family tree and some other stuff.

Of course "Virginia" meant something other than what it does now...could have been that SW corner of Pennsylvania for all I know.


wikipedia.com

[edale]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

wikipedia.com

I wonder if people in Detroit ever talk about 'once being part of Massachusetts' the way some Clevelanders talk about once being part of Connecticut, as if that makes them posh New Englanders lol.

[Steely Dan]

Duluth, Minnesota?

No.

Duluth, Virginia.



Virgina wasn't shy back in the day.

MINE!

What? I called it, dude.

I CALLED it!

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Duluth, Minnesota?

No.

Duluth, Virginia.



Virgina wasn't shy back in the day.

MINE!

What? I called it, dude.

I CALLED it!

There's a dark Netflix counterfactual series concept (in my head) with the Country of Virginia (big Virginia) and Country of Louisiana (big Louisiana) as bitter rivals for 100s of years culminating in thermonuclear war in 1979 (the Nazis got the bomb first, there was no USA or D-Day, and you can guess what happened then and there).

too far?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

There's a dark Netflix counterfactual series concept (in my head) with the Country of Virginia (big Virginia) and Country of Louisiana (big Louisiana) as bitter rivals for 100s of years culminating in thermonuclear war in 1979 (the Nazis got the bomb first, there was no USA or D-Day, and you can guess what happened then and there).

too far?

Two shitty nations are better than one shitty nation?

I'd watch it.