Lamar, PA

Lamar is a census-designated place along Pennsylvania Route 64 in Porter Township, southern Clinton County. The road runs through the Nittany-area countryside, with Nittany in Centre County just to the west. Interstate 80’s Exit 173 is about a mile northeast, Lock Haven is roughly 11 miles away, and State College is about 23 miles southwest. That makes Lamar a small settlement with unusually direct connections to the larger roads and towns of central Pennsylvania.

The community’s name reaches back to the Revolutionary War. Lamar was named for Major Marien Lamar, who was killed at the Battle of Paoli. Today the place is defined as much by its setting as by its name: Route 64, the nearby interstate, the fields and woods of Porter Township, and the short trip into Nittany Valley. Lamar sits between the Clinton County seat and State College’s larger orbit, a rural road community whose history and geography both point toward the routes running through it today.