RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Lawrence County >> Villa Maria >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Villa Maria, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Villa Maria 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 Villa Maria:
    • 41.073670, -80.507292
    • 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 Villa Maria
  • 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 Lawrence County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence County
    • Since Villa Maria is near Mahoning County and also Trumbull County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Mahoning County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Trumbull 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 Villa Maria

Communities Also Named Villa Maria ...

We found one communities that are also named Villa Maria.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Villa Maria is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, there is another community also named Villa Maria in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Maryland community of Villa Maria [Baltimore County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Villa Maria ...

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.

  • Crab Creek Junction
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Crab Creek Junction is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crab Creek Junction
  • Edinburg
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Geography Hall
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Geography Hall is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Geography Hall
  • Harbor
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Harbor is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor
  • Hells Corners
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Hells Corners is located in Trumbull County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hells Corners
  • Hillsville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Hillsville is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillsville
  • Kansas Corners
    (5 miles [8 km] to the north)
    • Kansas Corners is located in Trumbull County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kansas Corners
  • Maplewood Park
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Maplewood Park is located in Trumbull County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maplewood Park
  • Parkstown
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Parkstown is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parkstown
  • Peanut
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Peanut is located in Lawrence County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peanut
  • Poland
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Poland is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poland
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,363 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Poland <2>
  • Poland Center
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Poland Center is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Poland Center
  • Scienceville
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Scienceville is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scienceville
  • Thorn Hill
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Thorn Hill is located in Mahoning County (OH)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thorn Hill

How Far From Villa Maria 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 Villa Maria to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in Villa Maria and extending to:

  • New Castle, which is the Seat of Lawrence County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<3> to the east southeast. If you could walk a straight line from Villa Maria to New Castle, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 197 miles [317 km] to the east southeast (ESE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 237 miles [381.4 km] to the southeast (SE). Driving would take nearly four hours, a buggy would take 10 days and walking would take 14 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,946 miles [9,569.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,668 miles [10,731.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,543 miles [7,311.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Villa Maria 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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>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 from Point A (ie- Villa Maria) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.
<5>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 Villa Maria 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 Villa Maria. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 41.0737, Longitude: -80.5073       In this case, the coordinates for Villa Maria have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.871 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 306.023 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.426 degrees.