City Name :: Pottstown, PA
Population :: 21,859
Established :: 1752
Pottstown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States 40 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 18 miles southeast of Reading, on the Schuylkill River. Pottstown was laid out in 1752–53 and named Pottsgrove in honor of its founder, John Potts. The old name was abandoned at the time of the incorporation as a borough in 1815. In 1888, the limits of the borough were considerably extended.
Pottstown is the center of a productive farming and dairying region. In the past, its iron and steel interests were very extensive. There were large rolling mills, furnaces, nail works, textile mills, bridge works, agricultural-implement works, boiler and machine shops, foundries, and manufactories of bricks, silks, shirts, and hosiery.
Modern day Pottstown is established on land originally deeded to William Penn. Germans, Swedes and English were among the first settlers in the area. After establishment of the first iron forge in 1714, Pottstown's fortunes became tied to the iron industry.
Eventually, blast furnaces for production of iron and later steel opened in the area. Iron and steel production brought the Potts family, iron masters by trade, to the area. They established a forge in the area and built a large home just west of the Manatawny Creek. John Potts founded a town in 1751 on part of the 995 acres that he owned.
Over time, Pottsgrove grew and in 1815, was incorporated under the name Pottstown becoming the second borough in Pennsylvania after Norristown. The extension of the Reading Railroad to Mount Carbon facilitated the movement of raw materials and finished goods which helped Pottstown's economy to grow. In the few years following the extension of the railroad, the population grew from 600 to 1,850 residents.
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