Editing Altoona, Pennsylvania (section)

==Geography==
[[File:Altoona Fairview1.jpg|thumb|The Fairview neighborhood in Altoona]]
Altoona lies at the base of [[Brush Mountain (Blair County, Pennsylvania)|Brush Mountain]] within Logan Valley and Pleasant Valley. According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the city has a total area of {{Convert|9.8|mi2|km2|1}}, all land. Altoona is situated in the [[Allegheny Mountains]].

===Neighborhoods===
[[Image:Altoona City Sections V2.jpg|right|thumb|Map of Altoona neighborhoods]]
The main sections of Altoona are Downtown Altoona, Center City, Logantown, Fairview, Juniata, Wehnwood, Calvert Hills, 5th Ward, Westmont, Eldorado, East End, Dutch Hill, Pleasant Valley, Hileman Heights, 6th Ward, Mansion Park, Llyswen, Garden Heights, and Highland Park. Some significant neighborhoods are Little Italy, Gospel Hill, Toy Town, Columbia Park, Knickerbockers, and Curtin. Some areas within Logan Township, outside the city limits but still considered sections of Altoona, are [[Lakemont, Pennsylvania|Lakemont]], [[Greenwood, Pennsylvania|Greenwood]], Bellmeade, Westfall, [[Newburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania|Newburg]], and [[Red Hill, Blair County, Pennsylvania|Red Hill]]. Many of the older districts consist of a mix of [[Terraced house|rowhouses]] and individual homes, which were a common building style in railroad towns in order to provide for worker and manager housing, respectively.

====Downtown====
The downtown is the cultural and commercial center of Altoona and straddles the famous railroads. As is typical of a traditional city layout, the downtown is centrally located and contains significant development in all directions. Much of the area is listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] as the [[Downtown Altoona Historic District]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/PA/Blair/districts.html|title=National Register of Historic Places - Blair County}}</ref> Popular landmarks include the [[Mishler Theatre]], the [[Penn Alto Building]] (formerly the Penn Alto Hotel), the Gable's Building, City Hall, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and Eleventh Avenue itself.

Altoona has several notable churches, including the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament at the corner of 13th Street and 13th Avenue, the building on the corner of 12th Street and 14th Avenue that previously housed the First [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] Church, and the First [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] Church on the corner of 14th Street and 12th Avenue. The Station Medical Center, formerly known as the Station Mall, was a downtown mall built during the 1970s in place of many old railroad shops. The downtown contains most of what is known as Altoona's [[Little Italy]] district.

Because of the geography of the area, exact or natural boundaries for Downtown are not present. Therefore, Downtown is generally defined by what the city has zoned as Central Business: between 13th Avenue and the PRR Expressway, and from 7th Street to 16th Street. However, it is common for areas within Logantown and Center City to be expressed locally as "downtown".

The [[Texas Wiener|Texas Hot Dog]] was originally created in downtown Altoona in 1918; however, the [[Paterson, New Jersey]] Texas Hot Dog location, which opened in 1924, is more famous.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

=====Architecture=====
The commercial core of the downtown includes many multistory residential, commercial, and mixed-use facilities designed at the turn of the 20th century in a mix of [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]], [[Edwardian architecture|Edwardian Baroque]], and [[Romanesque Revival architecture|Neo-Romanesque]] styles. This style features high ceilings, resulting in taller buildings than is typical for the number of floors. The high ceilings are typically made of either [[Tin ceiling|tin]] or [[plaster]], although sometimes a [[Dropped ceiling|drop ceiling]] is utilized.

Individual homes originally provided housing to managers and executives of the PRR and have structural similarities to Victorian or Edwardian mansions, but built very narrow and tall. These are sometimes used as double or triple family apartments or even converted into commercial space. Outside of the commercial core is a mosaic of multistory commercial structures, mixed-use facilities, single story commercial structures, apartment buildings, multiunit housing, and single-family homes.

The U.S. post office in Altoona contains two oil-on-canvas [[List of United States post office murals#Pennsylvania|WPA-commissioned murals]] painted by [[Lorin Thompson]] in 1938, titled ''Pioneers of Altoona'' and ''Growth of the Road''.<ref>{{cite web|title=U.S.Post Office/Altoona |url=http://ilovealtoona.com/2012/04/u-s-post-office/ |publisher=Central Pennsylvania Community Foundation |access-date=19 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105015903/http://ilovealtoona.com/2012/04/u-s-post-office/ |archive-date=5 November 2013 }}</ref> Murals were produced from 1934 to 1943 in the United States through the [[Section of Painting and Sculpture]], later called the [[Section of Fine Arts]], of the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]].

===Climate===
Under the [[Köppen climate classification]], Altoona falls within either a [[hot-summer humid continental climate]] (''Dfa'') if the {{convert|0|°C}} isotherm is used or a [[humid subtropical climate]] (''Cfa'') if the {{convert|-3|°C}} isotherm is used. Summers are hot and winters are moderately cold with wide variations in temperature. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from {{convert|28.4|°F|1}} in January to {{convert|72.4|°F|1}} in July, although extremes in temperature have ranged from {{convert|−25|°F}} in 1904 to {{convert|103|°F}} in 2011. Total precipitation is greatest in September and least in February.

{{Weather box
|location = Altoona, Pennsylvania (Blair County Airport) 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1926–present
|single line = Y
|Jan record high F = 78
|Feb record high F = 76
|Mar record high F = 85
|Apr record high F = 91
|May record high F = 94 
|Jun record high F = 97 
|Jul record high F = 103
|Aug record high F = 102
|Sep record high F = 97
|Oct record high F = 90
|Nov record high F = 82  
|Dec record high F = 74
|year record high F = 103
|Jan high F = 35.5
|Feb high F = 38.6
|Mar high F = 47.7
|Apr high F = 61.0
|May high F = 70.9
|Jun high F = 78.6
|Jul high F = 82.9
|Aug high F = 81.1
|Sep high F = 74.2
|Oct high F = 62.7
|Nov high F = 50.5
|Dec high F = 39.9
|year high F = 60.3
|Jan mean F = 28.4
|Feb mean F = 30.7
|Mar mean F = 38.7
|Apr mean F = 50.4
|May mean F = 60.3
|Jun mean F = 68.5
|Jul mean F = 72.4
|Aug mean F = 70.6
|Sep mean F = 63.7
|Oct mean F = 53.0
|Nov mean F = 42.3
|Dec mean F = 33.1
|year mean F = 51.0
|Jan low F = 21.3
|Feb low F = 22.7
|Mar low F = 29.8
|Apr low F = 39.8
|May low F = 49.7
|Jun low F = 58.4
|Jul low F = 61.8
|Aug low F = 60.0
|Sep low F = 53.2
|Oct low F = 43.2
|Nov low F = 34.1
|Dec low F = 26.2
|year low F = 41.7
|Jan record low F = -25
|Feb record low F = -20
|Mar record low F = -4
|Apr record low F = 8
|May record low F = 25
|Jun record low F = 32 
|Jul record low F = 38
|Aug record low F = 34
|Sep record low F = 26 
|Oct record low F = 15 
|Nov record low F = 0
|Dec record low F = -12
|year record low F= -25
|precipitation colour = green
|Jan precipitation inch = 2.23
|Feb precipitation inch = 1.95
|Mar precipitation inch = 3.01
|Apr precipitation inch = 3.28
|May precipitation inch = 3.72
|Jun precipitation inch = 3.42
|Jul precipitation inch = 3.48
|Aug precipitation inch = 3.26
|Sep precipitation inch = 3.96
|Oct precipitation inch = 2.92
|Nov precipitation inch = 2.85
|Dec precipitation inch = 2.57
|year precipitation inch = 36.65
|unit precipitation days = 0.01 in
|Jan precipitation days = 11.2
|Feb precipitation days = 9.7
|Mar precipitation days = 12.0
|Apr precipitation days = 12.7
|May precipitation days = 13.6
|Jun precipitation days = 12.3
|Jul precipitation days = 12.1
|Aug precipitation days = 10.8
|Sep precipitation days = 10.3
|Oct precipitation days = 10.8
|Nov precipitation days = 9.9
|Dec precipitation days = 10.3
|year precipitation days = 135.7
|source 1 = [[NOAA]]<ref name = NOAA >
{{cite web
| url = https://w2.weather.gov/climate/xmacis.php?wfo=ctp
| title = NowData – NOAA Online Weather Data
| publisher = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
| access-date = August 7, 2021}}</ref><ref name=NCEI>
{{cite web
| url = https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1?dataset=normals-monthly-1991-2020&startDate=0001-01-01&endDate=9996-12-31&stations=USW00014736&format=pdf
| title = Station: Altoon Blair CO AP, PA
| work = U.S. Climate Normals 2020: U.S. Monthly Climate Normals (1991-2020)
| publisher = National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
| access-date = August 7, 2021}}</ref>
|source 2 = PA State Climateologist<ref name = "Pennsylvania State Climatologist">{{cite web 
  |url = http://www.climate.psu.edu/data/city_information/lcds/aoo.php
  |title = Pennsylvania State Clamatologist records 1926–1996
  |publisher = Pennsylvania State Climatologist
  |accessdate = 2021-06-30}}</ref>
}}