ONLY IN PA: Bradford is in the news again. This time, it made the website Only In Your State, which is about trip ideas. 

Author Jacki Mick says a visit to Bradford made her feel like she was in a Hallmark movie.

“Bradford sits right up near the New York border, tucked into this long green valley that looks like it’s been using the same flattering filter since the 1800s. You can see hills on all sides… actual, honest-to-goodness hills, not the ‘suggestion of elevation’ you get in most towns. Old brick buildings line the streets, the kind built back when architects assumed everything should last forever. When the holiday lights switch on, the whole place gives off a soft glow that makes you instinctively check for a camera crew. Even the reflections in the shop windows look intentional, the way they shimmer when you walk past a row of wreaths or a café with fogged-up glass.

“Speaking of quirks: Bradford has a massive Zippo lighter. I’m not kidding. A giant lighter. A shrine to fire. If Hallmark ever needs a plot where two people fall in love while learning the delicate art of lighter-making, the location is ready. And honestly? It’s delightful. Where else can you browse floor-to-ceiling displays of lighters like you’re choosing which one would best narrate your life in a voiceover?

“For a small place, Bradford has layers. It started as an oil boomtown. You know, one of those wild, muddy, unruly places where people chased Pennsylvania’s famously clean crude. Then came early aviation experiments, because why not build airplanes in a small city wedged between forested hills?”

More to come.