RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Delaware County >> Penfield >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Penfield, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Penfield and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Penfield:
    • 39.980668, -75.288796
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Penfield
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Delaware County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Delaware County
    • Since Penfield is near Montgomery County and also Allegheny County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Montgomery County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Allegheny County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Penfield

Communities Also Named Penfield ...

We found eight communities that are also named Penfield.

There is one other community in Pennsylvania that is also named Penfield.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of seven communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Pennsylvania ...
    • Clearfield County
      • This Penfield is located in Clearfield County and lies 192 miles [309 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Clearfield County community of Penfield.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Greene County
      • This Penfield is located in Greene County and lies 616 miles [991.4 km]<1> to the southwest of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Greene County community of Penfield.
    • Illinois
      • Champaign County
      • This Penfield is located in Champaign County and lies 667 miles [1,073.4 km]<1> to the west of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Champaign County community of Penfield.
    • Kansas
      • Labette County
      • This Penfield is located in Labette County and lies 1,100 miles [1,770.3 km]<1> to the west of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Labette County community of Penfield.
      • Osage County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Penfield [Osage County].
    • Michigan
      • Calhoun County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Michigan community of Penfield [Calhoun County].
    • New York
      • Monroe County
      • This Penfield is located in Monroe County and lies 245 miles [394.3 km]<1> to the north northwest of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Monroe County community of Penfield.
    • Ohio
      • Lorain County
      • This Penfield is located in Lorain County and lies 367 miles [590.6 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Penfield that is located in Delaware County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lorain County community of Penfield.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Penfield ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Allgates
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Allgates is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Allgates
  • Bywood
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Bywood is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bywood
  • Cedar Park
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Cedar Park is located in Philadelphia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cedar Park
  • Fox Fields
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Fox Fields is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Fields
  • Garden Court
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Garden Court is located in Philadelphia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garden Court
  • Grassland
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Grassland is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grassland
  • Hollow Woods
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Hollow Woods is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hollow Woods
  • Kellyville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Kellyville is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kellyville
  • Pilgrim Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Pilgrim Gardens is located in Delaware County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pilgrim Gardens
  • Roseglen
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Roseglen is located in Montgomery County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Roseglen
  • Spruce Hill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Spruce Hill is located in Philadelphia County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spruce Hill

How Far From Penfield to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Penfield to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Penfield and extending to:

  • Media, which is the Seat of Delaware County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 86 miles [138.4 km]<1> to the west northwest (WNW). If you could drive a straight line from Penfield to Harrisburg, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 119 miles [191.5 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take about two hours, a buggy would take 5 days and walking would take 7 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,778 miles [9,298.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,484 miles [10,435 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,360 miles [7,016.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Penfield) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Penfield could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Penfield to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Penfield. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.9807, Longitude: -75.2888       In this case, the coordinates for Penfield have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.775 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.343 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.536 degrees.