Colonial Lancaster was thoughtfully planned and laid out in a grid pattern with main thoroughfares in the city’s center set at right angles, running east-west and north-south, and divided into uniform rectangular property lots. Penn Square (originally known as Centre Square) formed the geographic nucleus of Lancaster, as well as serving as the civic, social and commercial hub of the Colonial town.

In the era before automobile travel, the four-mile square city was easily accessible by foot. Through the end of the nineteenth century, the major mills, factories, foundries and warehouses that employed Lancaster's industrial workforce were located within walking distance of Penn Square. Housing for all social and economic classes was also clustered downtown. The commercial enterprises along King and Queen Streets, and Lancaster's five Victorian markethouses, were all designed to serve customers on foot.

This pedestrian scale still survives in Lancaster's commercial and residential districts. The City's wonderfully diverse and compact neighborhoods are best explored on foot. Visitors will encounter three centuries of architectural history during a comfortable stroll.