What's the prettiest village in each state/province/area?

[MolsonExport]

Nelson (BC) is really picturesque.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by aderwent

Granville, Oberlin, and Yellow Springs in Ohio.

well you can't argue with that.

for small and unsung, i would add the area round watertown, just because heading west of toledo along the maumee is so nice.

also, a place like charm in the heart of amish country in holmes county is a beautiful area with its uniquely scenic sights and rolling farms.

i am sure we are missing more for ohio.

[lio45]

Agree with Nelson, likely the nicest little town in all of BC.

[ue]

Some attractive towns in Alberta:

Lacombe


Fort MacLeod


Banff


Coleman


Nanton

[edale]

Coleman and Nanton...not seeing it.

[ue]

Perhaps it's a matter of tastes. I prefer less manicured or traditionally pretty towns - Coleman has some colourful, old buildings, but they're often in a bit of disrepair.

Nanton, well, the timing of the streetview is clearly early spring when all of the sand and gravel from the winter hasn't been cleared and the trees aren't green yet. But it is a genuinely "cutesy" town, with little boutiques, museums, and restaurants.


https://parkbench.com/blog/nanton-al...hborhood-guide


https://crownofthecontinent.net/entr...4-86dfd92348eb


https://www.instagram.com/p/CSDJ0jVJcrz/


https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBnT1gLwdm/


https://www.instagram.com/p/CV-1s9Jv2aN/


https://www.instagram.com/p/CS5A2oIprsD/


https://www.instagram.com/p/CPHcE3qBLsN/


https://www.instagram.com/p/CMquQ3Sh4Us/

[Centropolis]

the canadien outpost of ste genevieve. part of the town is now administered by the national park service as an outstanding collection of 18th century french colonial architecture

missourilife.com

tripadvisor.com

fox2now.com


sah-archipedia.org

[photoLith]

^
St Genevieve is amazing, one of the coolest small towns Ive been to and its perfectly preserved and the opposite of St Louis.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
St Genevieve is amazing, one of the coolest small towns Ive been to and its perfectly preserved and the opposite of St Louis.

its a pretty unique little region. you see the quebec flag flying on rural poteaux-en-terre style houses down the road from confederate flags outside of town. most french speakers are dead now but the language is still an idea within living memory and thats entirely unique in the midwest or south outside louisiana.

the culture and people generally came from quebec and not louisiana, though, which is a geographical surprise i guess.

[Centropolis]

really highlighted the idea of the quebecois as a coherent “people” in a way that can feel rare in the new world even if they’ve been monumentally eroded within the united states in a way they havent been in canada.

[Centropolis]

anyway wish i were dining in the continental tonight in quebec. these truely northern cold blasts make it down here for a week or two in january and i turn north not south for some reason

[Six Corners]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

sah-archipedia.org

My wife is from Ste. Gen. In her teen years she was a tour guide at this house.

It's certainly a beautiful town and I've developed somewhat of an obsession for Sirros pizza. However, and maybe it's the city planner in me, but I've been somewhat disappointed lately by recent decisions to locate key community assets on the outskirts of town. I feel that it is creating a situation where the preserved part will cater too much to tourists and not so much to residents.

[CaliNative]

I haven't been there, but a I've heard good things about Galena, Illinois on the Mississippi. Gen./Pres. Grant lived there before the Civil War. Supposed to very nicely preserved town. For Mark Twain fans there is Hannibal MO, but it is kind of touristy. Was that really the Tom Sawyer fence etc.? Fun for the kids. They love the cave. In Wisconsin, pick any small town/village on the upper Door Penninsula. In western upstate NY, the village of Chautaqua is nice. The Institute of the same name is also there, and you can take lectures and courses in summer. Many of the small towns and villages in the Finger Lakes region are pretty, as are many of those in the Adirondacks. In PA, I like Gettysburg for the history and current beauty. Of course it was hell for a week in the Civil War. All Civil War buffs must visit. Eisenhower after he retired spent the warmer months there on his farm, and wintered in Palm Desert CA. Many of the small towns/villages on the New England coast and islands are very pretty. Expensive though.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by CaliNative

I haven't been there, but a I've heard good things about Galena, Illinois on the Mississippi. Gen./Pres. Grant lived there before the Civil War. Supposed to very nicely preserved town. For Mark Twain fans there is Hannibal MO, but it is kind of touristy. Was that really the Tom Sawyer fence etc.? Fun for the kids. They love the cave. In Wisconsin, pick any small town/village on the upper Door Penninsula. In western upstate NY, the village of Chautaqua is nice. The Institute of the same name is also there, and you can take lectures and courses in summer. Many of the small towns and villages in the Finger Lakes region are pretty, as are many of those in the Adirondacks. In PA, I like Gettysburg for the history and current beauty. Of course it was hell for a week in the Civil War. All Civil War buffs must visit. Eisenhower after he retired spent the warmer months there on his farm, and wintered in Palm Desert CA. Many of the small towns/villages on the New England coast and islands are very pretty. Expensive though.

Hannibal is a bit depressed, but is the largest city of a few along the river which all have some unique antebellum vibes.

[Centropolis]

i have a soft spot for mendicino, ca but there are a number of uniquely sunny yet murky towns on the northern california coast backed up to redwoods

[nito]

I have always been curious of the American definition and/or view of a village, many of the settlements posted would from a European perspective be viewed as small to large towns. There isn’t a specific definition of a village and there are some peculiar examples like Tiptree, Essex which isn’t a village but for all intents and purposes is a town. In general, a village is a settlement with a church (a village without a church is a hamlet), possibly a pub and village green, but no market, no town hall or mayor and generally possessing a small population, from a couple dozen to a few hundred.

The UK has thousands of villages, many of the picture postcard sort that attract tourists from across the globe, and many accessible from London, but I won’t be posting about them today.

What I will discuss though is the curious anomaly of villages inside London itself. There are two types. The urban villages such as Clerkenwell, Highgate, Dulwich, Walthamstow (and a multitude of others) that were consumed by the boom of Victorian London but which retain an identity and degree of quaintness. More curious though is the second type, these are villages that reside within the boundaries of London but which were preserved from urban sprawl due to the Green Belt, Downe shown below is 15miles from Central London.

Cudham


Downe


Harefield


Havering-atte-Bower


Wennington

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by nito

I have always been curious of the American definition and/or view of a village, many of the settlements posted would from a European perspective be viewed as small to large towns. There isn’t a specific definition of a village and there are some peculiar examples like Tiptree, Essex which isn’t a village but for all intents and purposes is a town. In general, a village is a settlement with a church (a village without a church is a hamlet), possibly a pub and village green, but no market, no town hall or mayor and generally possessing a small population, from a couple dozen to a few hundred.

The UK has thousands of villages, many of the picture postcard sort that attract tourists from across the globe, and many accessible from London, but I won’t be posting about them today.

What I will discuss though is the curious anomaly of villages inside London itself. There are two types. The urban villages such as Clerkenwell, Highgate, Dulwich, Walthamstow (and a multitude of others) that were consumed by the boom of Victorian London but which retain an identity and degree of quaintness. More curious though is the second type, these are villages that reside within the boundaries of London but which were preserved from urban sprawl due to the Green Belt, Downe shown below is 15miles from Central London.

yes, the usa definitions are just ... varied and difficult to parse. for example, ohio has 88 counties with an average of 131k people. so have fun with this -- and its just one state example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admini...isions_of_Ohio

[edale]

^Right. Ohio has pretty strict definitions for such things, as I'm sure many states do. There, any incorporated place with less than 5,000 residents is considered a village.

A very wealthy, 'backcountry' type of suburb of Cincinnati called Indian Hill actually had a somewhat funny experience with the Ohio system of categorizing municipalities. Indian Hill always made it a point to emphasize that they were a village, as many villages in Ohio do. I guess it feels tonier or something. So they had The Village of Indian Hill on all their signs, municipal buildings, etc. Well, a few years back they passed the 5,000 resident mark, so they officially became the City of Indian Hill. This caused the locals to freak out, as the last thing this quasi-rural, fancy place wanted to be called was a city. So they legally changed the name of the municipality to "The Village of Indian Hill". So, they are now legally known as The City of The Village of Indian Hill.

[sopas ej]

Yes, terminology varies according to the individual US states of what constitutes a city, town, village, etc.

In California, ALL incorporated municipalities are considered cities, no matter what the population. What a municipality chooses to call itself is given leeway; there are some municipalities that are officially called "towns," but legally, there is no distinction between say the "City of Vernon" vs. the "Town of Atherton." The largest "town" in California is Apple Valley, which has a population of over 75,000 people, and the smallest "city" is Amador, which has a population of 200. For the longest time, the city of Vernon was the smallest incorporated city by population in CA; I think it had a population of less than 100 for a long time. And of course the "towns" have a "town hall" vs. a "city hall."

Legally, what California does differentiate is whether a city is a charter city or a general-law city, and you can't tell that from its name. Unincorporated "towns" are usually referred to as "unincorporated communities."

When I visited my sister and her husband who were living in Wisconsin while he was in med school, they lived in the "Village of West Milwaukee" which tripped me out because it was officially a "village" and had a village hall. While visiting my parents' friends who lived in New Jersey, I learned that they have boroughs, towns, cities, townships, and villages. Not sure how they legally define each one.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

its a pretty unique little region. you see the quebec flag flying on rural poteaux-en-terre style houses down the road from confederate flags outside of town. most french speakers are dead now but the language is still an idea within living memory and thats entirely unique in the midwest or south outside louisiana.

the culture and people generally came from quebec and not louisiana, though, which is a geographical surprise i guess.

You've managed to almost convince me to move over there with my gf and have kids there rubbing my sense of duty the perfect way.

(Current gf speaks no English, as is the case for most people in the province, even the younger generations.)

Can't believe I've never been there. I've passed through STL countless times. I also stopped once in Lafayette LA on purpose, sought older fellow francophones, found a few that was almost 20 years ago though, the same venture today would not yield the same results I'm afraid. They were all really old and had a crazy borderline incomprehensible accent, which was fascinating.