Gracious Old Home (Magdalena Room)

One of six available rooms in a large, stately home in central Hollidaysburg. Bright with big south-facing windows. Queen bed, private full bath. Big, mostly organic breakfast with good European coffee. No TV, but there's high-speed Wi-Fi. Ceiling fan, window AC. This enormous Second Empire home is full of nooks & crannies to explore. There are six bedrooms to choose from, each with a private full washroom. There is a large dining room, a parlour and an even larger "great room", with 12-foot pier mirrors and a baby grand piano, that we use for receptions and recitals. There's no TV on offer here, but we have high-speed internet. Plenty of books and periodicals, too, with interesting places to sit and read. We also have many folk instruments - guitars, banjos, mandolins, dulcimers - around the house that guests are welcome to play. We have two kids of our own to look after, so we won't be in anyone's hair. We will serve guests a very nice breakfast, better than you'll find anywhere else in the area. We use fresh ground Quartermaine coffee, turkey bacon, fresh fruit and organic free range eggs. Hollidaysburg is a small town about five miles from Altoona, PA, a once-bustling railroad town that's been in decline since long before American steel mills started to close. Hollidaysburg has always been relatively prosperous. Many stately old homes built soon after the civil war are found on tree-lined Allegheny Street, and our home is among the nicest of them. But even the more modest areas of town are well-kept, quiet and safe. It's well worth exploring the town by foot or cycle. The pedestrian-friendly downtown, called "The Diamond", has managed to survive and still has small neighborhood shops. There are several restaurants and three coffee shops on Allegheny Street, all within brief walking distance of our B&B. This is a town where many people attend church. There are churches of virtually every Christian denomination, including two Catholic churches. The closest synagogue is in Altoona, and the closest Quaker meeting house is in State College. Nearby Altoona still has passenger rail service. There are two Amtrak arrivals a day, one west-to-east (to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh) and one east-to-west (to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia), at about 10:00am and 5:00pm, respectively. If you arrive by train, we'll give you free transport to the B&B. Public transport does exist here, though not on Sundays. A bus going to and from Altoona stops right in front of our house, once per hour, on weekdays. It then meanders through the landscape for about 70 minutes before finally arriving at the Altoona Amtrak Station -- a trip which takes just 10 minutes by car. Altoona has taxis that serve Holldiaysburg, but you cannot flag them down. You must telephone, and wait up to an hour for a taxi to arrive. We are multilingual. We can communicate in French, Mandarin and Hindi. Our breakfast is made from mostly certified organic ingredients. Most basics like milk, eggs and butter are organic. Sourcing things like organic cheese, turkey bacon and bread is more difficult where we are, but we do our best to ensure quality. We do not serve any processed food. We don't eat beef or pork and don't generally serve them, but if you require them in your breakfast diet, please let us know in advance and we will accommodate you. The house has many folk instruments, especially mountain dulcimers, that guests are welcome to play.