Kutztown, PA

It's Just About Perfect in Kutztown

At 10:30 on a weekday morning, the late breakfast crowd is starting to blend with early lunch people at The Quality Shoppe in Kutztown, Pa. Owner Scott Gardner flips pancakes, eggs, and a pile of hash browns from his post at the griddle while bantering with customers sipping coffee at the counter. After delivering orders, waitresses sit with patrons and chat, sometimes sharing a quick hug or a favorite photo.

The restaurant is the culinary equivalent of a favorite pair of slippers. It’s the kind of place where you’ll find baby pictures and local artwork on the walls. To those familiar with the community, it’s the essence of Kutztown—comfortable, unpretentious, and with a strong streak of Pennsylvania Dutch pride.

Supporters of the borough, which 5,067 souls call home, describe Kutztown as “the perfect community.” It’s a place where, on a Sunday morning, Amish buggies heading to church mingle with motor traffic on Main Street, and where the main drag includes a hex sign shop that stocks Dutch folk art to be hung on barns to bring good luck. In the summer, locals drift down to the neatly manicured park to hear concerts in the band shell.

“This is God’s country,” one Quality Shoppe regular declares.

But to see Kutztown as simply another quaint community would be to miss the sophistication and progressive thinking that are as much a part of its character as shoo-fly pie. Kutztown University brings more than 8,000 students, faculty, and staff into the town—their diverse ideas infusing Kutztown with a hum of creativity. The university’s popular Performing Arts Series has introduced locals to international talent, from an avant-garde dance ensemble to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

At 74, Mayor James W. Schwoyer—now in his sixth term—has had a surprisingly lively career for a small town politician. Inside the borough hall, he shows off photos of himself shaking hands with former Presidents Bush and Clinton and Gen. Colin Powell. He’s met an assortment of other international figures, too, heavy hitters who visit the community after speaking at the university. Schwoyer’s favorite was former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She was the smartest of the bunch, he thinks.

One of the community’s best-known events is the Kutztown Pennsylvania German Festival, a nine-day celebration of the region’s heritage. Held around the Fourth of July, the event attracts thousands from around the country who come to enjoy handmade crafts, re-enactments, demonstrations, and, of course, traditional foods such as sausages, soup, sauerkraut, and scrapple.

This mingling of old and new elements also is apparent in the business community. Brian Koller’s grandfather opened a little grocery store on Main Street back in the 1930s; Koller—a Kutztown University graduate—now runs the shop.

“We have teenagers who come in, but we also get a lot of elderly who can’t drive to the grocery store, so they walk here,” Koller says.

Kutztown also harbors a few manufacturing facilities, including Radius Toothbrushes, whose futuristic-looking implements are said to scrub the teeth of such celebrities as Sting, Whoopi Goldberg, Jane Fonda, and Cher.

Ask Kutztowners what makes their town special and many will look at you with a puzzled expression.

“There’s nothing special about it,” some reply.

When you live for a long time in a place, you can begin to take the obvious for granted, but a newcomer such as Father Dan Hinkle, who moved here from Washington, D.C., just two and a half years ago, is smitten by Kutztown’s charms.

“The physical beauty of the area is breathtaking,” says the pastor. “At the farmer’s market, you still hear a lot of Pennsylvania German spoken, and you stop and wonder if you’re in Germany. The people here are kind of quiet and shy, and it takes awhile to get to know them. But when you win their trust, they really open up.”

Sometimes it takes an outsider to remind you of what you had all along.

Pamela Rohland, a Pennsylvania freelance writer, is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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