DANVILLE, PA HISTORY

Our Past is a Blast
Located in the smallest of Pennsylvania’s counties, Danville, PA is the historic county seat. From the 1800s, Danville forged a reputation as an iron-making center, creating and manufacturing the railroad industry’s iron T-rail, which contributed greatly to the area’s success, employing over a thousand people. The mills, blast furnaces and foundries continued to operate through the turn of the century.

Prominent among the industrialists is William Montgomery, who founded and laid out the town, named for his son Daniel, in the late 18th century. Montgomery’s house, constructed in stone in 1792, stands at the corner of Mill and Bloom Streets, and displays and celebrates the area’s history in its museum.

Inventors blossomed in this era, with Henry Rempe, who designed a self-winding clock in 1901; Christopher Sholes, an inventor of the typewriter; and forward thinkers such as J. F. Lavigne, who was instrumental in the contruction of the recreation center at 201 Mill Street, for use by women who worked at his silk mill.

Danville, PA was becoming a cultural centerpiece...an opera house, architecturally designed public buildings and mansions, and public events all showcased the rise in the standing of the community.

Founded by Abigail Geisinger, internationally acclaimed Geisinger Medical Center opened in 1915, and is today the largest rural healthcare facility in the country.