The picnic area grew into Mount Gretna Park with dancing and amusements, the National Guard of Pennsylvania set up training grounds and the Farmers’ Encampment—precursor to the Pennsylvania Farm Show—held annual agricultural exhibitions.
Eight years after the first train stopped at the new station, disembarking passengers encountered another change: “Two Cities in the Woods—the Pennsylvania Chautauqua and the Mount Gretna Campmeeting—Magical Growth and Great Beauty,” headlined the Lebanon Daily News on July 2, 1892.
More than a century later, the two ‘magical’ cities remain, their 19th-century roots still visible. An 1892 time-traveler would find cars and cell phones foreign but would feel at home on the wooded walking paths, tree-lined streets and cottages with open-air, wraparound porches…