Elizabethtown Borough

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

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Elizabethtown Borough Hall is located at 600 South Hanover Street, Elizabethtown PA 17022.
Phone: 717‑367‑1700.

Beginnings [1]

Incorporated from West Donegal and Mount Joy townships April 13, 1827. A patent for the land upon which the town was afterwards built was secured by Thomas Harris, an Indian trader residing on Conewango Creek, on November 12, I746. Lazarus Lowrey, another prominent Indian trader, purchased the land July 15, 1751, and on June 13, 1753, he and his wife, Ann, conveyed the farm to Barnabas Hughes, who laid out the town plot and named it after his wife. Hughes was a tavern keeper on the Paxton Road, the great trail from Philadelphia to the West. The post office was established as early as 1781. The first bank was opened in 1869. Among the earliest industrial enterprises was silkworm culture, then tanneries, and foundry and agricultural implement manufacturing. Elizabethtown is the seat of the great Masonic Home of Pennsylvania, the finest Masonic Home in the world, the State Hospital for Crippled Children, which are near the town, and Elizabethtown College, an institution of The Brethren. Population in 1940 was 4315. Population 2008 was approximately 12,000.

  1. Godcharles, Frederic A., Litt.D., Chronicles of Central Pennsylvania, 1944, Lewis Historical Publishing, Inc., New York

Nearby Towns: East Donegal Twp • Marietta Boro • Mount Joy Boro • Rapho Twp •


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