Paradise, PA

Paradise is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in eastern Lancaster County, with 1,129 residents at the 2010 census. U.S. Route 30 runs through the larger Pennsylvania Dutch Country map, while Pequea Creek marks the CDP's northern edge. The area's first European settlers included French Huguenots who moved through the Pequea Valley in the early eighteenth century. The township adopted the name Paradise when it was organized in 1843, although local histories give different versions of who first used it.

The name gets attention, but the everyday landscape is made of working farms, covered bridges, old mills, and roads shared by residents and visitors. Paradise sits near Intercourse, Gordonville, Strasburg, and the Strasburg Rail Road, so tourism is part of the local economy without being the whole story. The village is also tied to the wider Lancaster County school and farm network. Paradise is a place where an unusual name brings people in, but the older Pennsylvania Dutch settlement pattern is what gives the community its shape.