Celestia in Laporte Township, Pennsylvania

Today, visitors to Celestia will find little more than a forest, a few traces of old foundations, and a historical marker along Route 42. In the mid-1800s, however, this mountaintop was intended to become something far more ambitious: a sacred city built in preparation for Christ's return. Founded by religious leader Peter E. Armstrong, Celestia was established as a community of millennialists who believed they were creating a wilderness refuge for the coming Kingdom of God. Armstrong envisioned a mountaintop "City of Heaven" where his followers would live apart from the outside world and awai

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