Butler, PA (pop. 15,121) is a small city about 33 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh.  It is the seat of Butler County (pop. 174,083).  It is part of the Pittsburgh MSA.  Butler is not part of Pittsburgh's Urbanized Area, but has its own Urban Cluster of about 40,600 people.  Butler was founded in 1802.  In 1941, the Jeep prototype was developed at American Bantam's facility in Butler.  There is a rather large neighborhood of spectacular Victorian mansions northeast of Downtown.  Today, Butler remains an attractive regional satellite city working on a downtown revitalization programme.  AK Steel is a major employer in Butler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Butler County Courthouse... I am aware of the symbolism... but I could do without the cheesy cardboard cutout yellow ribbon detracting from this magnificent piece of architecture...

 

 

 

 

Downtown Butler seemed pretty active... even in the early morning... while its retail mix doesn't quite reach its potential... there are quite a few interesting restaurants and shops downtown

 

I didn't capture it in my photos... but there's a really cool system of brick alleyways in Downtown Butler... and a lot of fantastic historic churches

 

 

 

 

 

Downtown Butler redevelopment plan... hopefully the architecture of the hotel turns out a little better than that rendering... one of the existing downtown lots is GRAVEL!  Ugh!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that attractive old house has a tumor (Burger Hut)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love pink houses

 

a beautiful shade of lemon

 

This 128 year old brick house was moved down Main St. a couple weeks ago to preserve it from demolition

 

one of many gorgeous downtown churches... wish I had captured more but the early morning lightning wasn't always right

 

the southwest corner of Butler is pretty gritty and severe

 

 

but the West End gets nicer as you move north

 

Butler is surrounded by lush hills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was really amazed at how extensive Butler's mansion district is

 

 

 

 

 

Butler's SouthSide is a middle class neighborhood... it is extremely steep and offers some great views of Butler... such as this one

 

 

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next we travel to the small town of Slippery Rock (pop. 3,068), located in northwestern Butler County about 17 miles northwest of Butler and 50 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh.  Slippery Rock is an extremely small village, and most of the population consists of students at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania, one of our many state universities.  It's kinda surprising that a larger town wouldn't develop around the university to make money off the over 7,000 students there. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SRU's campus

 

SRU has a couple monumental structures... such as Old Main

 

 

small but attractive downtown... this tanning salon seemed to be the largest business downtown

 

Very small... but Slippery Rock did give me a sort of "mountain resort" feel... it reminded me of a much less mountainous and less hippie Boone, NC (home of Appalachian State)

 

North Country Brewing looked like a cool place to relax... but I had to hit the road...

a couple great buildings & the usual handful of interesting homes, the rest is fairly typical. that's not a bad thing, i liked it.

 

the town seems in good shape too.

 

oh yeah also it gets bonus points for the urban styled infill planned.

Butler seems very West Virginian while Slippery Rock screams North Carolina.

fixed

Butler looks amazing.