Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Change to Parade Route Announced Area businesses, non-profit organizations, school bands, classic car owners, dance teams, and fire departments are asked to please submit their registration forms for Bradford’s annual Cruisin’ into Christmas Parade as soon as possible, but no later than the November 14th deadline. Forms may be picked up at and returned to the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce office located at 121 Main Street Monday through Friday from 10am-4pm, or will be emailed by request to those interested in participating. The Street Dreams Car Club, Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce and signature sponsor CNB Bank are moving forward with plans to improve the Sixth Annual Cruisin’ into Christmas parade, which will be held on Friday, November 21st at 6 pm on Historic Main Street in downtown Bradford. One significant change to this year’s parade is the reversal of the parade route – instead of lining up in the high-traffic area around Davis and Main Street, participants will r...

The Street Dreams Car Club, Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce and our signature sponsor CNB Bank are proud to announce plans for the Sixth Annual Cruisin’ into Christmas parade on Friday, November 21st at 6 pm on Historic Main Street in downtown Bradford. Cash prizes will be awarded for six different divisions: best holiday music arrangement by a school band, best holiday float by a business, best holiday float by a non-profit organization, best decorated classic car, best holiday arrangement by a dance team, and best decorated fire truck. In each category, prizes will be $250 for 1st place and $100 for 2nd place. Applications can be picked up at the Chamber office at 121 Main Street, Bradford Monday through Friday from 10am until 4 pm. Registration will close on November 15th. If you have any questions, contact Gary Hoy, President of the Street Dreams Car Club or Ron Orris, Executive Director of the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce. The news leader of the Twin Tier...

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford hospitality management program will mark World Tourism Day Sept. 27 with a service project in downtown Bradford that will also promote the downtown area as a place for students to spend time. In keeping with this year’s World Tourism Day theme, “Tourism and Community Development,” volunteers from Pitt-Bradford will perform general clean-up and projects requested by business owners from 10 a.m. until noon in the area of Main Street downtown. From noon to 3 p.m., a Main Street Fair will be held for all students to see what is available in Bradford and specifically, what student specials are available for them. The hospitality management program is working with the Bradford Area Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Bradford Business District Authority to encourage businesses to set up sidewalk sales and promotions for students. Businesses not on Main Street downtown can set up on Veterans Square, where inform...

The improvements to Downtown Bradford keep on coming, and plans are in the works to step up the fight against blight in residential areas as well. City Council on Tuesday authorized loans to Rookies to building a deck and pave two parking lots; Shelley Wright to fix the roof on 80-82 Main Street (Wright’s Music Shed); and The Aud to buy the Boylston Street building the restaurant currently occupies. Even City Hall is getting a face lift. Council approved a payment to Shembeda Floor Covering to install carpeting on the front steps of the building and Room 103. They also awarded a bid to Hennard Construction for renovations to the third floor, including city council chambers. While the focus in recent months has been the revitalization and restoration Fifth Ward resident Pat Girard told council she believes the city is ignoring neighborhoods. She said she thinks code enforcement should be working to make sure the outsides of properties are maintained better, and that landlords are li...

If you think Downtown Bradford looks good now, keep watching. It’ll be looking even nicer. Bradford City Council on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to more than a dozen improvement projects planned by private property owners. Mayor Tom Riel and OECD Director Sara Andrews said this shows that people do really care about the city’s revitalization efforts. Riel said in the nine years he’s been on council he has never seen anywhere near that many certificates of appropriateness approved in one meeting. “I think that speaks volumes to … the funds (OECD) has been able to secure for downtown, and just the overall sense of revitalization in the downtown.” “It’s been a fantastic summer,” Andrews said. She noted that this represents thousands of dollars’ worth of private investment in the historic district. St. Bernard’s Church, Man’s World, Whimsical Studios, Moments to Remember, Chosen Acres, Kabob’s, as well as buildings owned by Todd Hennard, John Kohler, James Colligan, Dwayne Zimmerman and...

Another downtown Bradford building may be getting a facelift. The Loyal Order of Moose building at 14 Pine Street is currently in the county repository, but the Bradford School Board during its meeting tonight is expected to give its consent to the Tax Claim Bureau to sell the property to the Downtown Bradford Revitalization Corporation for $500. Lee Minter has also made an offer -- $1,000 – and says he has two prospective tenants. Minter bought the former Archer’s building at the corner of Main and Congress streets two years ago. The item on the school board’s agenda says the DBRC is making the offer because it is “concerned with the preservation of one of our most significant buildings in the city’s historic district.” The DBRC plans to restore the building using grant money and/or by working with private investors who having a building restoration plan and resources to implement it. The news leader of the Twin Tiers ... since 1947

Bradford’s Downtown Historic District tells a story worth preserving. While the oil industry is the basis of Bradford’s history, the story told by the buildings downtown goes further than that, according to Erin Hammerstedt of Preservation Pennsylvania. “We can see different phases of development from the early settlement patterns in the lumber phase to the boom phase and, really, what most of your buildings reflect are the post oil boom stabilization,” she said during a presentation Monday evening in Bradford. “People had the money in their pockets, they were feeling good, they were going to stay awhile. …. their other buildings burned down,” she said, referring to the history of fires in Downtown Bradford. “They were ready to make their mark and build something that had their name on it.” Hammerstedt said she wasn’t sure if people were aware of how much work has been done in the Historic District in the last few years. “In the last five years at least 10 buildings have been ...