Downtown Hummelstown

Hummelstown is a borough of about 4,500 people with a Main Street that still works as a Main Street. I live here, which is the only reason this is the first entry rather than the second.

Main Street

The businesses along Main Street are the ones the town actually uses, not a themed row.

Toys on the Square is a real toy store, the kind where someone helps you find something for a seven year old you do not know well. Since 2023 it has been at 17 West Main, in the building that was Rhoads Pharmacy and its gift shop.

Olde Factory Antiques and Crafts, at 139 South Hanover Street, is three floors of antique and craft dealers, about 150 of them. It takes about two hours if you are the kind of person it is for.

Eating

The restaurant in the old Warwick Hotel at 12 West Main reopened under new owners in 2022 as The 1762. It is where people end up for dinner downtown.

There is more of a restaurant scene a few minutes up the road in Hershey, and most Hummelstown residents treat the two towns as one place for the purposes of deciding where to eat.

Indian Echo Caverns

Just outside town, along Swatara Creek, there is a limestone cavern open to the public. The tour runs about forty five minutes and the rock is Beekmantown limestone, which is more than 440 million years old.

It holds at 52 degrees year round. That makes it the correct plan on an August afternoon when nobody can face the pool again.

If you have visitors coming and you have already done Hershey, this is the second thing.

What it is like to live here

Quieter than Hershey and cheaper for the same square footage. The commercial base is smaller, which matters less than you would think because Hershey is right there.

If you want a town where the person at the counter starts recognizing you within about a month, this is that.