LANCASTER -- While Gen. John Forbes never visited Conrad Weiser's farm or the home of Quaker businesswoman Susanna Wright, he probably would have felt comfortable at either place.

That's because those two 18th-century residences, both restored historic sites, look much as they did in 1758. Visits to them provide contrasting glimpses into daily life in southwestern Pennsylvania at the time of the French and Indian War.

Lancaster is the first of the "gateway" communities along "Pennsylvania's Forbes Trail," linking Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

Now best known as the center of the state's Pennsylvania Dutch tourist region, the city of 55,000 has had a long and varied history. It has been important as a trading, manufacturing and political center. It served for one day as the capital of the United States, when the Continental Congress was forced to flee Philadelphia in 1777, and as the state capital from 1799 to 1812.

If you go: Lancaster

• When Gen. John Forbes' troops passed through Lancaster 250 years ago, they marched down King Street.

A few decades later, Lancaster's City Hall and a Masonic Lodge were erected along the city's main thoroughfare. Those two buildings have been converted into the Heritage Center of Lancaster, which contains a three-story museum and a gift shop.

The center, located at 5 W. King St., has current displays dealing with early printers, spiritualist photography and the Amish. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is free. For more information call 1-717-299-6440. Its Web site is www.heritagecentermuseum.com.

The center has free area maps and brochures about dozens of other tourist destinations in the area. Lancaster is about 240 miles east of Pittsburgh.

• Among the best-known attractions is the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, at 37 Market St. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is $6 for adults, $4 for students with ID and free to children ages 17 and younger. Its Web site is www.quiltandtextilemuseum.com. It has the same phone number as the heritage center.

• The Conrad Weiser Homestead is on Route 422, just east of Womelsdorf, Berks County.

Summer hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m Sundays.

Admission to the buildings is $3 for adults, and $2 for children 6 to 17. Children under 6 are admitted free.

For more information, call 1-610-589-2934 or visit the Web site, www.conradweiserhomestead.org. The homestead is operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

• Wright's Ferry Mansion is at 38 S. Second St., Columbia, Lancaster County. The home is open for tours through October from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Admission is $5 for adults and $2.50 for children. For additional information or to make group reservations call 1-717-684-4325.

Following Forbes' footsteps

"Pennsylvania's Forbes Trail," a new travel guide and history from Taylor Trade Publishing, focuses on gateway communities across the state through which Gen. John Forbes passed on his 1758 expedition to capture what is now Pittsburgh's Point.

Staff writers Len Barcousky and Marylynne Pitz revisited those communities for a travel series:

• Lancaster
• Carlisle
• Fort Loudoun
• Bedford
• Ligonier
• Pittsburgh

Its cycles of growth and renewal make it hard to find traces of how it looked in late June 1758. That was when Forbes and part of his army traveled through on their way west to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. The region around Lancaster, however, still contains many places dating from that era.

The Conrad Weiser Homestead, located 40 miles north in Berks County, was the longtime home of the Colonial era farmer, politician and frontier diplomat.

Weiser was born in Germany in 1696 and came to the New World with his family in 1712, settling first in New York state, where he learned Iroquois languages.

Moving with his young family to Pennsylvania in 1729, he became the Penn family's chief negotiator with Native American tribes.

His knowledge of Indian customs was critical in October 1758 when he served as interpreter and arbitrator at talks in Eastern Pennsylvania that resulted in the Treaty of Easton. That agreement promised Indian neutrality in Britain's war against the French and opened the way for Forbes to capture what became Pittsburgh's Point without firing a shot.

Weiser died at his home two years after his diplomatic triumph. He is buried less than 100 yards from the two-room stone farmhouse where it is possible -- but not definitely proved -- that he and his wife raised 14 children. Archaeological work done in 2000 indicated only that the existing structure was built in the 18th century.

Ownership of the farm passed from the Weiser family in 1834 and the new owner constructed a two-story home, now the visitors center.

In the early 20th century, the Olmsted Brothers, sons of the designer of New York's Central Park, landscaped the grounds.

Their additions include a long, grassy mall. It is anchored by a tall stone monument to Weiser that faces a life-sized statue of Shikellamy, Weiser's Iroquois partner in negotiations.

If the Weiser homestead provides a look at life on a colonial farm, the more luxurious home of Susanna Wright shows how bits of cosmopolitan London and Philadelphia could be transported to the Pennsylvania frontier.

The Wright's Ferry Mansion was built in 1738 by a Quaker businesswoman, entrepreneur and poet. Located about 15 miles west of Lancaster in Columbia, it was named for the nearby Susquehanna River crossing operated by Susanna Wright's younger brothers, James and John.

It remained in the Wright family until 1922 and was always a private residence. Acquired by the von Hess Foundation in 1978, it was been restored to its 1750 appearance.

Benjamin Franklin visited Susanna Wright at her home, seeking her help in gathering supplies for the doomed Braddock expedition of 1753. The pair remained regular correspondents. Franklin sent his friend books, pamphlets and a thermometer from London and candles made near Chester, where the Wright family had lived before moving to the banks of the Susquehanna.

Wright also raised silkworms, and Franklin took cloth originating on her farm to London. Some of that fabric was used to make a gown worn by Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III.

Curator Meg Schaefer has been overseeing the restoration of the house for three decades and is the author or co-author of three books about the building and its multi-talented owner.

While only a few of the home's furnishings belonged to Wright, restorers have been able to recreate the interior of the house with the help of references in her letters and business papers, Ms. Schaefer said.

Ms. Schaefer, who often leads tours through the house, appears to know the date of manufacture and history behind each item in the two-story structure.

Although she lived on the edge of the Pennsylvania frontier, Wright was able, via books, periodicals and letters, to keep up with political and scientific debates taking place in Philadelphia and London, Ms. Schaefer said.

The successful businesswoman lived well.

Her furniture, made in Philadelphia, is in William-and-Mary and Queen Anne styles. Pictures, prints, silver, dishes, goblets and glass for the home's many windows were imported from England, India or China.

The eldest of five children, Susanna Wright was the only one not to marry.

Her mother died shortly after the family arrived in America, and Susanna raised her younger siblings. Then when her brother James died, she raised his children as well.

"She took those responsibilities seriously," Ms. Schaefer said. "Plus, she had a very independent spirit ... and in her era, when a woman married, she lost many of her rights."