What's special about your hometown?

[Brandon]

The town I was born in, Joliet, IL is where Dairy Queen started, and Jake Blues was imprisoned there.

The town I consider my hometown, Plainfield, IL, was hit by the only F5 tornado in the US to strike in the month of August, effectively wiping out 1/5 of the town.  Also Melissa McCarthy is from there.

The town I live in now has the "Morris Operation" nearby, which is the only de-facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.

I can add to that.

Lived in Joliet most of the time I've been in NE Illinois.

In addition to the above, the F5 tornado did just as much damage to the west side of Joliet and part of Crest Hill (where most of the 29 fatalities occurred).  It's also home to the crossings of the Lincoln Highway and US-66, US-30 and US-6, and one of two historically for US-6 and US-66 with the other being about 2,000 miles away in Los Angeles.  It's also home to the largest collection of Scherzer rolling lift bridges in the US (4 - Jackson St, Cass St, Jefferson St, and McDonough St).  May I also mention that Andy Dick, Anthony Rapp, John Barrowman, John Houbolt, Robert Novak, Lionel Richie, Fr. Lawrence Jenco, George Mikan, Roger Powell Jr (lived down the street from him at one point), Tom Thayer, and Mike Alstott either were born here or lived here for an extensive amount of time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Joliet,_Illinois

[GaryV]

Some people who at one time lived in my (current) home town:

Mary Barra
Judith Guest
Glen Frey
several sports figures
And let us not forget Dr Death himself, Jack Kervorkian (I saw him in a hardware store once - I wonder what he was buying?)

EDIT:
And since someone wants more than just (semi-)famous people, in my home town two Indian trails meet.  You can still see the depression through a side yard of a house (now a lawyer's office) where it wasn't covered up by a street.

[Gulol]

Before 1991, I would have said it's where Little House on the Prairie was filmed and the house from Poltergeist was.  Post 1991, it's where the first Rodney King trial was held.  Not really the thing you want to be known for ...

[Flint1979]

My hometown (Saginaw, Michigan) is also the hometown of Stevie Wonder, LaMarr Woodley, Draymond Green, Jason Richardson, Stuart Schweigert, Terry McDaniel, Anthony Roberson, Charles Rogers, Sam Sword, Curt Young and more.

[Bruce]

Puyallup, WA has two "special" things about it:

- Nathan Chapman, killed on 4 Jan 2002, was the first casualty of the War in Afghanistan. He lived there while he was stationed in the middle east.

- John Reese (played by Jim Caviezel) from "Person of Interest" is from Puyallup. Fictional character though.

Arguably, pioneer-turned-historian Ezra Meeker is the most famous person from Puyallup. Without him, most of the reverence for the Oregon Trail wouldn't have been preserved, and thus the Oregon Trail video game would have never been made.

There's also that little fair.

[Big John]

Green Bay.

Besides the obvious, it is also the toilet paper capital of the world.

[roadman65]

Orlando.  Mmm lets see.

Ah, Disney World. Sea World.  Universal.  In the center of Florida near both sides of the state.  Close to all beaches.

[bassoon1986]

Shreveport, LA

-capital of Louisiana for 2 years during the Civil War
-named for Capt Henry Miller Shreve, who broke up a 180-mile long log jam on the Red River
-notable blues singer Huddie Ledbetter ("Lead Belly" ) from here, and Elvis Presley debuted his career on the "Louisiana Hayride"  radio program

Road related:
-the oldest Red River bridge in Shreveport, which carries US 79 and US 80, was well known in the 90's when the city had it covered in neon lights
-crossroads of the Jefferson Highway and Dixie Overland Highways (they technically shared pavement on US 80)


iPhone

[webny99]

Interesting, a lot of responses have taken the route of "famous people born in my hometown".

I was thinking more along the lines of stuff you find valuable or unique or would miss if you moved away: food, weather, and so on - basically special currently as opposed to special historically - although both are interesting.

[jon daly]

Interesting, a lot of responses have taken the route of "famous people born in my hometown".

I was thinking more along the lines of stuff you find valuable or unique or would miss if you moved away: food, weather, and so on - basically special currently as opposed to special historically - although both are interesting.

Currently:
1. I'm a townie in a tourist town that I have little time to take advantage of,
2. Can't think of anything special about Ellington or Manchester,
3. Rockville has a cool little Civil War museum (that also covers history .)

[Hurricane Rex]

Sherwood was an Old Railway Town, but we only started our 800% growth spurt in the 90s continuing to today. Also Portland and Metro seems to hate us more than other areas, prioritizing our city to become the next Portland over others it seemed, until our people rised up to fight that BS. Our city has a reputation to be very vocal when it comes to any huge city issue, like our recent Mayor Recall, and the UGB expansion prooposal.

Also we have no hotels o tourist attractions (the only city with no hotels in the Portland urban area)

[tdindy88]

Indianapolis is known for a really big auto race held during Memorial Day weekend.

[US71]

Fort Smith has Judge Parker's courtroom (the hanging judge). Soon we will have a Marshall's Museum if the city quits wasting money.

[1995hoo]

Hmm... the town where we lived for the year after I was born became, many years later, the hometown of Robert Griffin III. Copperas Cove, Texas.

[Flint1979]

Food wise Saginaw is probably best known for the Giant Steak Sandwich from Tony's which is a local landmark and has several locations owned by various members of the Lagalo family. They started in an old grocery store ran by their grandfather who was named Tony and that is where Tony's got it's name. There was a Tony's featured on the Food Network and it is located in Birch Run about halfway between Saginaw and Flint. Around Saginaw there are seven locations and a few locations including the one in Birch Run are no longer owned by a Lagalo but have continued to use the Tony's name.

I'm also local to the city of Flint. Flint is known for Coney Islands, Big John Steak & Onion and Halo Burger. A Flint Style Coney is severed at coney island restaurants throughout Genesee County and beyond. A Flint Style Coney, the coney sauce is a little more meatier than Detroit Style Coney sauce and is mass produced by Abbott's Meat, one of two Flint icons the other one being Koegel Meats who produce the hot dogs. The best place to get a Flint Style Coney is from Starlite Diner & Coney Island in Burton it's open 24 hours serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and is a very popular 1960's style diner. It's located on Center Road (on the Burton side of the Flint/Burton city limits) and Davison Road. I've been going to Starlite for 30 years it opened in 1966 and have never got a bad meal or bad service from there, sometimes I've had to wait a few minutes before getting waited on but they are always busy and have a drive thru as well, the place is busy 24 hours a day they have people coming from every single direction, all of the east side of Flint, Burton, Davison and Grand Blanc eat there as well as the cops. Flint is a very dangerous city but has a few areas that aren't bad and downtown is one of them, being the dangerous city that it is Starlite attracts a rift raft crowd in the middle of the night and has security guards in the parking lot and building. There have been numerous fights but with the security they get the situation under control and call the cops.

Flint is obviously still dealing with the water crisis and it's on the mind's of every Flint resident just about every day. Flint has seen better days and I always hope that they can revive the city of Flint but it will never be the city it was. General Motors dominated Flint and plant after plant was closed down and people were moving out of Flint as fast as they were moving out of Detroit. The downfall of the Automobile industry hurt the Michigan cities that relied on it, including Detroit of course, Flint, Lansing, Saginaw, Pontiac and Warren. Detroit once had 1.8 million people and this was in 1950 almost 70 years ago and now in 2018 there is probably about 650,000 people living within Detroit's 139 square miles. Detroit is starting to make a comeback, things are well underway and better days are ahead for Detroit I believe in that city. The opening of the new arena, having Comerica Park and Ford Field all within a four block area making Detroit the only U.S. city to have all four of it's major sports teams playing downtown is awesome. New buildings are starting to pop up and old buildings are either being torn down or renovated including the historic Michigan Central Station, one of the images of Detroit's ruins for many years as it's the first building you see as your coming over the Ambassador Bridge from Canada and on I-75 coming over the Rouge River bridge from southwest Detroit and Downriver. Detroit's motto is "Speramus meliora; resurgent cineribus,"  which translates to "We hope for better things; it shall arise from the ashes."  which was pinned after a terrible fire swept through Detroit in 1805, now maybe this city can finally rise from the ashes of the 1967 Riots, which still haunt parts of the city. The area around 12th and Clairmount was never the same after the riots, 12th Street was renamed Rosa Parks Blvd.

I think one of the special things about Detroit is the Fisher Building. It sits a few miles off the river and isn't clustered in the downtown skyscrapers but the New Center area has a skyline of it's own it is dominated by the golden tower of the Fisher Building. The building is nothing short of an art deco lovers dream with the paintings and marble flooring throughout the building it's a masterpiece and a landmark in the city of Detroit. This is why WJR announces they are broadcasting from the golden tower of the Fisher Building, actually their transmitter is located in Riverview in the Downriver area. Part of WJR's original lease was that they had to mention the Fisher Building at the top of the hour. Right now their top of the hour is: From the golden tower of the Fisher Building, this is the great voice of the Great Lakes, news-talk 760, WJR Detroit.

For food in Detroit the best place to get a Detroit Style Coney is from Lafayette Coney Island located downtown next door to American Coney Island and as a diehard Lafayette person I have never stepped foot inside American Coney Island. The are rivals and have been located side by side beside the now demolished Lafayette Building for over 100 years. Detroit is truly a historic city but a lot of it's history has been torn down and rebuilt over the years making it appear as more modern city in areas. All of the new development in Detroit has been provided by Detroit native Dan Gilbert and since Mike Duggan has taken office as mayor things have improved in Detroit and I hope things continue to improve for this great American city.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Duluth has gotten swept up in the local sourced/schmancy food trend with places like Chester Creek Cafe, Duluth Grill, and Lake Avenue Cafe. If you're looking for greasy spoon stuff, your best bets these days are Gordy's Hi-Hat (only seasonally open) in Cloquet and the Anchor Bar in Superior. I never cared much for the Anchor, and calling it a dive bar is generous.

Sammy's Pizza is also a big thing, which is one of my favorite pizza joints.

[Rothman]

Duluth has gotten swept up in the local sourced/schmancy food trend with places like Chester Creek Cafe, Duluth Grill, and Lake Avenue Cafe. If you're looking for greasy spoon stuff, your best bets these days are Gordy's Hi-Hat (only seasonally open) in Cloquet and the Anchor Bar in Superior. I never cared much for the Anchor, and calling it a dive bar is generous.

Sammy's Pizza is also a big thing, which is one of my favorite pizza joints.

When I lived there, Duluth's big restaurant draws were the Canal Park ones all owned by Grandma's.

I think it was at the Lake Avenue Cafe where there was a piece of glass in some sort of beef dish I was eating.

[sparker]

Since it's not specified as to whether one's original home town or present domicile is to be discussed, I'll just do a brief synopsis of both:

Original (born & raised): Glendale, CA.  Bedroom community of greater L.A. -- although now the site of some major corporate HQ.  In the '50's and '60's (when I lived there) was the most sociopolitically conservative town still near downtown L.A. (IIRC, in 1962 it was something like 73% registered Republican).  Original home of Bob's Big Boy and the various franchises that sprung from that concept; one of the smaller cities to have its own full-time symphony orchestra (which was conducted for many years by Carmen Dragon, father of Daryl Dragon -- the "Captain" of.....& Tennille!)  Home of Forest Lawn Cemetery, where numerous celebrities are interred.  A few celebrities came from (or through) Glendale over the years:  Casey Stengel (lived down the street from me), Lindsay Wagner (I went to H.S. with her), Eva Mendes (graduated from the same high school as myself but about 25 or so years later!).  The first section of the I-5/Golden State Freeway (except for the Newhall Pass 4-lane segment), actually constructed prior to Interstate fund disbursement, cut through the northwest corner of Glendale.  I'd like to claim Baskin-Robbins ice cream as a Glendale institution -- but it was founded in next-door Burbank, and moved its corporate HQ to Glendale in the '60's.  Oh -- the first Panda Express opened in town (the founding family's Panda Restaurant had been a Glendale institution since the '70's) back in the late '80's.  For decades the 4th largest city in Los Angeles County; surpassed Pasadena to make it to 3rd after the '70 census (with L.A. and Long Beach occupying the two top spots, of course).  Currently either 3rd or 4th; they tend to run neck-and-neck with Torrance for those honors.  And my high school (Hoover) -- at least in its original "classic brick" form (torn down as an earthquake hazard in 1966-67) was seen nationwide in the title sequences of the "Mr. Novak" TV series in the early/mid 60's.  Hey, when you're 9 miles from Hollywood, such things happen!

Present (2012-?; previous stints from the mid-'70's to late '80's), San Jose.  Just surpassed 1M population, making it the 3rd CA city to do so (tying TX with their 3).  Home of:  Oracle, Cisco, Ebay, and numerous other tech or electronic media companies.  Physically large city, with tentacles reaching south into Coyote and Almaden valleys, but with a decidedly underwhelming downtown (dominated by SJSU).  Closest-in major airport (Mineta), located immediately north of downtown (and the reason for building height limitations downtown); the approach pattern is right over my office south of downtown.  Traffic department dominated by urbanists; road diets are S.O.P. (about 60% of them work well -- but the ones that don't are abject failures).  Home base of VTA (not turntables' Vertical Tracking Angle); the local transit authority, responsible for bus and LR in Santa Clara County.  Coincidentally, home of one of the weirdest LR configurations around -- back when the system was being formed in the mid-80's, it was decided to use it as an "experimental" exercise in futuristic urban planning -- reversing the concept of employment in the center and hub-and-spoke out to the periphery, it was built around central housing and "Silicon Valley" employment centers around that same periphery.  In doing so, its service to lower-income residents was given secondary consideration -- to get to the poverty-ridden East Side from downtown, one must travel first NNW out almost to Alviso, at the lower end of S.F. Bay, then curving back SE to the east side -- rather than a more direct route.  This was done because of several major employers (the aforementioned Cisco and Oracle at the forefront) at or around the point where the line turns either east then SE toward the East Side, or west to Sunnyvale and Mountain View (while passing, wonder of wonders, Levi Stadium [SF 49'ers] and Great America amusement park).  VTA's LR system caters to the tech world and its denizens rather than the general regional population -- and it's ridership is perpetually lower than originally projected.  The saving VTA grace is, generally, the bus system (which does go where the ridership is!).  Although a bit bipolar (it can't seem to decide whether to prioritize the express buses or local servers, so it "toggles" between the two on a regular basis), at least it has plenty of neighborhood lines -- if underserving some of the industrial areas. 

If I'm sounding like I don't care much for SJ -- that certainly isn't the case in general -- just their approach to transportation issues.  I suppose one can't fault the system for trying something new -- but they seem reluctant to acknowledge that their experiment hasn't been a resounding success -- and that serving the regional population base is equally important to "making a point" with their planning priorities.  The OP asked for "something special":  well, there it is ( in the vein of Dana Carvey's "Church Lady":  Welllllll.....isn't that special!) 

[jakeroot]

Puyallup, WA has two "special" things about it:

- Nathan Chapman, killed on 4 Jan 2002, was the first casualty of the War in Afghanistan. He lived there while he was stationed in the middle east.

- John Reese (played by Jim Caviezel) from "Person of Interest" is from Puyallup. Fictional character though.

Arguably, pioneer-turned-historian Ezra Meeker is the most famous person from Puyallup. Without him, most of the reverence for the Oregon Trail wouldn't have been preserved, and thus the Oregon Trail video game would have never been made.

There's also that little fair.

Totally forgot about Meeker. His mansion is by far one of the most beautiful homes in Pierce County, there's a giant statue of him downtown, there's a street and school named after him; I just assumed that I heard so much about it him growing up because he was a local guy.

Thought about mentioning the fair, but wasn't sure if it was that special. Considering the size and number of visitors, I guess it is rather special.

I was trying to think of things that people not from the area might know.

[freebrickproductions]

My hometown was one of the first cities in Alabama, along with being the original state capitol. We also helped get man to the moon, and are soon the be the largest city in Alabama.

[triplemultiplex]

A noteworthy folk art installation made by a local eccentric in the mid 20th Century.

[inkyatari]

The town I live in now has the "Morris Operation" nearby, which is the only de-facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.

We also have in Morris several state parks...

Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area
Heideckie Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area
Morris Wetlands State Natural Area
William G. Stratton State Park (basically a huge boat ramp, but still has its charms)
Gebhard Woods State Park
Gebhard Woods is also the HQ for the Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail

There's the Aux Sable aqueduct about 6 miles to the east, the been-collapsed-for-6-years-but-dont-have-the-money-to-rebuild Nettle Creek Aqueduct (which is a shame, as it causes one of many gaps in the I&M trail that haven't been fixed due to funding,) the grave site of Chief Shabbona, the Grundy County Corn Festival (which is a big deal and has one of the largest parades in Illinois,) and a quaint historical downtown that Wal-Mart didn't destroy.

[abefroman329]

My actual place of birth is also the childhood home of "Macho Man"  Randy Savage and Denise Richards.

[jon daly]

That's Randy Poffo of the Cardinals farm system.

[Bruce]

My hometown, Arlington, WA, hosts one of the largest "fly-in" airshows in the United States. 50,000 visitors and 1,600 planes every July. We were also on the shortlist for a new University of Washington campus until the project was canceled during the early recession.

It also has more bus service than Arlington, TX, despite being ten times smaller.