Portal:Pennsylvania/Cities/9

Lancaster, is a city in the South Central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is the county seat of Lancaster County. With a population of 55,351, it is the 8th largest city in Pennsylvania, behind Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Reading, Scranton, and Bethlehem. The metropolitan area population stands at 494,486 making it the 102nd largest metropolitan area in the US.

Locally, Lancaster is pronounced as LANK-ih-stir, rather than the more common pronunciation LAN-cas-ter.

Named after the English city of Lancaster by native John Wright. Its symbol, the red rose, is from the House of Lancaster. Lancaster was part of the 1681 Penn's Woods Charter of William Penn. Lancaster was layed out by James Hamilton in 1734. During the American Revolution, Lancaster was the capital of the colonies on September 27, 1777, when the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia, which had been captured by the British. After meeting one day, they moved still farther away, to York. Lancaster was capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812, after which the capital was moved to the Harrisburg. (Read more...)