Roadside America

Roadside America was an indoor miniature village and railway covering 8,000 square feet (740 m2).

Created by Laurence Gieringer in 1935, it was first displayed to the public in his Hamburg, Pennsylvania, home.

The miniature village's popularity increased after stories were published about it in local newspapers, which prompted Gieringer to move it to a recently-closed local amusement park called Carsonia Park.

To accommodate growing interest and build a larger display, Geringer then purchased land at what would be the miniature village's final location, a former dance hall in Shartlesville, Pennsylvania off of Interstate 78, approximately 20 mi (32 km) west of the Lehigh Valley, where the display reopened in 1953.

[1] After being closed since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roadside America announced on November 21, 2020, that they were closing permanently after trying, unsuccessfully, to find a buyer for the past three years, and that they would be auctioning off the display.

Interior View of Display
Geringer's granddaughter looking at a model house in the museum