Photo: Historic American Building Survey, Carol M. Highsmith collection, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/.
Borough Hall is located at 49 Main Street, Delaware Water Gap PA 18327. Phone: 570-476-0331.
The Borough of Delaware Water Gap [†] is situated in southeast Monroe County, Pennsylvania adjacent to the gap between the Appalachian Mountains where the Delaware River flows. Interstate 80 and Route 611 pass through the Borough, which encourages easy accessibility from all directions. New York and New Jersey are approximately 11 to 1-1/2 hours driving time to the east, and Philadelphia is approximately 1.5 hours driving time to the south.
In addition to convenient transportation accessibility, the Borough boasts access to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail. The combination of these two attributes makes the Borough a potentially attractive tourist destination.
The Borough of Delaware Water Gap has benefited from its regional setting and surrounding natural beauty since the Borough was settled 1793. By the 1820's visitors were arriving in the Borough to enjoy the scenery and in 1829 construction of one of the first hotels in the Borough was begun, thus the establishment of Delaware Water Gap as a resort community.
The Gap enjoyed a national reputation for its resorts and drew prominent financiers, politicians, and society people from the time of the Civil War until World War I. Tough economic times of the 1930ʹs proved too high for the Water Gap's resorts to overcome. Many of the small boarding houses were converted into private residences. Most of the old hotels were either destroyed by fire, were closed, or continued to operate as best they could under changed conditions.
Today, Delaware Water Gap is a quaint residential borough with a modest downtown main street. Through a grant administered by Monroe County, the Borough sought to develop a Village Study to reenergize the area as a tourist destination and revitalize the local economy.
† The Borough of Delaware Water Gap Village Study, 2013, dwgpa.gov, accessed October, 2025.
Nearby Towns: Knowlton Twp • Portland Boro • Smithfield Twp • Stroudsburg Boro •