Schwenksville Borough History

This article was written by Robert W. Cope. Mr. Cope was the Supervising Principal of the Schwenksville Union School District and, after the merger with the Collegeville-Trappe School District, became Assistant Superintendent of the Perkiomen Valley School District.

The borough of Schwenksville is located along the Perkiomen Creek, at the intersection of state Routes 29 and 73, about five miles north of U.S. Route 422, the main highway from Philadelphia to Reading. The current population includes some families of the original Pennsylvania German stock but also many of other ancestries who have fled from the city and nearer suburbs.

Schwenksville’s history began in 1684, when the Lenni-Lenape Indians ceded to William Penn the land along the Perkiomen Creek. At that time, the area now included in the borough of Schwenksville was spilt between Frederick Township on the north and Perkiomen-Skippack Township on the south.

About 1695 the first copper mine in Pennsylvania began operations here. Work stopped during the Revolution, and efforts were made to hide the mine from the British. Subsequent attempts to reopen and operate the mine proved unprofitable.

The settlement grew slowly during its first two centuries. The railroad reached Schwenksville about 1869. Passenger service brought many summer visitors. Several summer hotels located on Spring Mountain just outside Schwenksville, an observatory, and an amusement park were big attractions. The Perkiomen Creek was also a great attraction, especially for boating and swimming in early times. From 1900 to 1920 the railroad was at its busiest, but by 1960 passenger service discontinued. The railroad could not compete with the automobile.

Besides its value for recreation, the Perkiomen was an important economic resource in the early days of the community. Before the days of electric refrigerators, ice harvesting was a major industry in the area. Several large icehouses were located along the creek, and ice was regularly shipped to Philadelphia. Mills grinding grain for flour depended on the Perkiomen for power. The icehouses are long gone and the mills have become apartment houses and stores. In recent years the operation of municipal and county sewage plants has helped to clean up the creek.

Schwenksville filed its first application to become a borough in 1899. It failed because a majority of the affected property owners opposed it, fearing an in-crease in taxes. A second application was made in 1902, and the boundaries were so drawn as to leave out most of those opposing incorporation. The court ruled that the resulting area, less than a hundred acres, was too small, allowing little room for improvement or growth. The final petition proposed a borough of two hundred acres and a population of 350. The Montgomery County Court approved the application on April 6, 1903, and Irvin H. Bardman became the first burgess. Additional land from Lower Frederick Township was annexed to the borough in 1972 and brought the total to 343.4 acres. At that time property owners were eager to join the borough for the sake of obtaining sewer connections.

The borough’s government has changed little in eighty years. The original Borough Council, by legislative mandate, had five members of the majority party (Republican) and two of the minority party. Although this regulation no longer applies, Democrats are elected to council from time to time. In 1975 a group of women decided to try their political wings, and three were elected to council under the banner of the "Woman’s party." The state legislature eliminated the title of "burgess" in 1961, and the chief executive of the borough in 1980 was Mayor Donald Garrell.

Until World War II, the population of Schwenksville showed only a slow growth. Since then the population has increased substantially. This was due in part to the construction of a large apartment complex on the hill overlooking Centennial Street and in part to the annexation of land.

Jacob Schwenk, who is recognized as the founder of Schwenksville, had enlarged his home in 1845 to have room to care for weary travelers. In the early twentieth century, the building on that site was known as the Farmers’ Hotel and was operated by Charles W. Bean. The Hendricks family took over the hotel before 1914, and for some years it was known as Hotel Hendricks. In 1922 Edward Krupp became the proprietor and renamed the building Krupp’s Hotel. It was later operated by his son, Russell Krupp, until about 1947. After that, the hotel, then owned by Gilbert Farrington, had numerous managers until it became only a bar and restaurant. The hotel was the scene of many special dinners. Its register records dinners by such organizations as the Schwenksville Livestock Insurance Company, the state Highway Department, the Letter Carriers, and the Schwenksville National Bank.

The National Bank and Trust Company was established in 1874 and originally conducted business from Irvin Bardman’s home. The present bank building, on the corner of Main and Centennial streets, was completed in 1927. In 1962 the Schwenksville National Bank and Trust Company merged with the Union National Bank and Trust Company of Souderton. A second bank, the Ambler Savings and Loan Association, opened a branch on Centennial Street across from Union National in January 1974.

Albert Bromer brought the manufacturing of men’s clothing to Schwenksville. In 1874 he built Industrial Hall, using the first floor for the clothing business. The second floor was an auditorium for public entertainments and was used for the commencement exercises of the schools of Perkiomen Township. The third floor served as a meeting place for secret societies such as the Red Men. Bromer also built two buildings used as buttonhole shops for his clothing business. One is still standing and is now the Schwenksville Borough Hall. At the height of his business Bromer is reported to have had as many as seven hundred employees, many of them working in their own homes. A horse and wagon transported the completed garments to Philadelphia. Albert Bromer retired about 1890, but his son, William, carried on the business until 1907, when he sold it. Later a hosiery mill occupied Industrial Hall.

Another major industry came to Schwenksville about 1900 when Fred Beltz moved his cigar-making business to town. He had branch factories elsewhere. At one point the firm manufactured five million hand-rolled cigars a year. Beltz liquidated the business in 1935, when the advent of cigar-making machinery made hand rolling unprofitable. Many people still living in Schwenksville in 1980 remembered working for Fred Beltz in their youth.

The Paragon Bag Company made its headquarters in Schwenksville in 1929. This company, headed by Samuel Schurr, manufactured ladies’ handbags. In the early 1960s the company moved to Zieglerville in Lower Frederick Township.

Despite its relatively small size, Schwenksville has shown a steady interest in progress. The borough has an active volunteer fire company, a public water system, public sewers, a community library, a weekly newspaper, and a modern school system. Schwenksville became a member of the Pottstown Area United Way in 1969.

The Schwenksville Fire Company was organized in 1874 and incorporated in 1907. The company’s first home was in the building now used as Borough Hall. In 1933 the company purchased Industrial Hall, which Albert Bromer had built for his clothing factory, and converted the first floor to house the fire engines. The company outgrew this building, however, and in 1979 purchased land a little farther north on Main Street. It put up a one-story building to house the equipment and provide space for its activities.

Francis W. Wack organized the Schwenksville Water Company, which began to bring water to the community in 1921. Artesian wells supply water to the borough and to some immediately adjacent areas. Schwenksville sells water to the Lower Frederick Water Company for the village of Spring Mount.

The borough itself operates the sewer system, constructed by the Schwenksville Borough Authority in 1964, and also supplies some service to adjacent areas.

The Schwenksville Community Library was founded in 1934 through the efforts of the Young People’s League of Heidelberg Reformed Church under the leadership of Eva Meng, who continued as librarian in 1980. Jacob Bromer donated space for the library in the basement of his home on Main Street next to Industrial Hall. The library remained at this location until January 5, 1957, when it moved into its own fine new building at the corner of Second and Church streets.

Alfred Panepinto, a local architect, who donated his services, designed the new library building. The building, planned for community use, contains a meeting room for 120 people and an auditorium for 300, which can also be used for community dinners. The total cost, $71,655, was covered entirely by money-raising activities and donations from local individuals and organizations. Many local groups use the library.

Schwenksville’s weekly newspaper was founded by Nathaniel B. Grubb, who published the first issue on September 7, 1877. It was then known as the Weekly Item and was published above a saddler’s shop on the second floor of a small frame building on Main Street next to the present Texaco station. The front page of the initial issue was devoted to literary efforts rather than news: a poem, "The Golden Side"; articles, "A Noble Revenge," "Why?," and "Everlasting Giving"; and a humor column. The price was seventy-five cents per year. Later the name was changed to Schwenksville Item. Grubb published the Item primarily to earn the money necessary to study for the ministry. By 1883 he had attained his goal. He sold the newspaper to Irvin Bardman, who carried on as editor and publisher until 1928. Bardman’s son, Stanley, sold the business in 1948. Paul Styer, of Perkiomenville, and Harry Fox, of Schwenksville, were the next owners. In 1952 they sold the paper to Frederick Cook, who held it for a few weeks before handing it over to Cy and Mary Dirks. The editor and publisher in 1980 was Bruce MacBain, who acquired the paper April 1, 1958.

The earliest school building in Schwenksville was built in 1849 by Benjamin Pennepacker on the Gravel Pike near Perkiomen Avenue. This school is still standing, now used as a residence. The playground consisted of the pike and the narrow strip of land between the pike and the creek. Frequent delays in games, when balls had to be fished out of a gully or from the creek, caused much annoyance.

After twenty years this school proved to be too small. A new building was erected "on the hill beside the road to Keely’s church" (Bean, p. 1025), on ground purchased from Abraham Eschbach. Philip Prizer, a director, supervised construction. Unfortunately, little else is known about this 1869 building.

The building, known since June 1934 as the Benjamin T. Miller School, was built by the Perkiomen Township school directors in 1894. The two-story brick building stood on Perkiomen Avenue. The school’s name honors the only person known to have been born on the school grounds who later taught in the school. Unused for several years, the school was demolished in 1980.

The consolidation of the schools of Schwenksville Borough and Lower Frederick and Perkiomen townships brought about the construction of the J. Horace Landis Consolidated School. Although the consolidation occurred in September 1925, the building was not occupied until April 2, 1928. It was dedicated on May 8, 1928. Enrollment grew from about 325 in 1925—26 to 1,469 in 1968-69.

In 1949 the School Board contacted A. M. KuIp, county superintendent of schools, about obtaining additional space for elementary school pupils. At that time the Landis School had only grades one and two; the other grades were assigned to a portable annex and to the Miller School. The result was the construction of a four-room elementary school on a plot behind the Miller School. This was the first unit of the school later named in honor of Claude K. Kulp, secretary of the School Board. Twenty-three rooms, in three separate building programs, were added to the original building over a period of about seventeen years. On adjoining grounds the Robert W. Cope School, named in honor of the author of this chapter, who was supervising principal of the Schwenksville Union School District from 1953 to 1969, opened in 1969-70.

Schwenksville Joint Consolidated School District became Schwenksville Union School District on July 1, 1957. Consequently, for school purposes, the boundaries dividing the three municipalities were removed. The tax rates became uniform throughout the district and gave the schools a better financial base.

The next change in the status of the schools took place on July 1, 1969, when the Schwenksville Union School District and the Perkiomen Joint School System (Collegeville and Trappe boroughs and Skip-pack Township) merged in accordance with state and county requirements. The new district, called the Perkiomen Valley School District, covered an area of thirty-one square miles. The participating districts shared a need for a larger and more adequate high school. At this time the Landis School, which since the 1920s had housed high school grades as well as other grades, became a junior high school. The new high school, Perkiomen Valley High School, was built in 1976 on Route 29 at Trappe Road, Grater-ford, and covers grades eight through twelve.

The earliest doctor of record in Schwenksville was Dr. Joseph Y. Bechtel. Dr. Bechtel came to town in 1856 and served the community for sixty-six years. He sometimes rode ten to twelve miles on horseback to see patients.

Dr. John Markley, who succeeded Dr. Bechtel, was another physician of the old-fashioned type. For the past fifty years, a number of other doctors have served the community. In 1980 only one, Dr. Bertram Ginsberg, had an office in Schwenksville.

From 1949 to 1965, Schwenksville Borough and Lower Frederick and Perkiomen townships had a police agreement and employed Theodore Berry as chief for the entire district. About 1965 Perkiomen Township withdrew but Schwenksville and Lower Frederick continued in a joint agreement until 1971. Today Schwenksville has its own chief of police. Older residents remember that before 1949 special police officers, under Harry Long, operated a speed trap, which made Schwenksville an unpopular place through which to travel.

The churches of the borough reflect the German origin of many early settlers. Originally all services were in German. Some services in German continued until World War I, when the feeling against Germans ran high. Some families with German-sounding names Anglicized them to avoid problems. When one resident felled a few trees to have a better view from Spring Mountain, a rumor immediately spread that he was clearing a field for German planes to land.

A building for educational and religious purposes was constructed in 1762 on Valentine Keely’s ground just outside Schwenksville on the road to Limerick. It was used for a time by three denominations: Reformed, Lutheran, and Mennonite.

The Mennonites withdrew in 1818 and built their own stone meetinghouse on Mine Hill. When this building proved to be inadequate, the growing congregation built a brick meetinghouse nearby. This served until 1893, when Eden Mennonite Church in Schwenksville was built on ground donated by Mary S. Geiger, the daughter of Schwenksville founder Jacob Schwenk. The sanctuary was dedicated in 1895. In 1947 the congregation purchased a parsonage, the home of Henry Dorn, a blacksmith in town for many years.

Keely’s church-school was torn down in 1834. The Lutheran and Reformed congregations then constructed a new church on the same site. It was a two-story stone building with a gallery on three sides of the auditorium. When this church became too small, the Lutherans withdrew. In 1889 they occupied Jerusalem Lutheran Church in Schwenksville. In that year the Reverend Nelson F. Schmidt became pastor and served the congregation until his death in 1948. The Lutheran parsonage, across Second Street from the church, was built in 1909. The Ladies Aid Society began the movement to build a parsonage and accumulated $1,000 as a nest egg for this purpose. In the end, however, Mary S. Geiger financed the building as a memorial to her father. Irvin Schwenk, Mary Geiger’s brother, donated the land for the project. The money raised by the Ladies Aid Society went into a fund to maintain the parsonage.

The Reformed congregation used the 1835 building until 1892, when it occupied the new Heidelberg Church in Schwenksville. In 1910 the children of Albert and Catherine Bromer financed the parsonage of the Reformed Church as a memorial to their parents. The basement of the church was renovated for use as a social room in 1927, and an addition for Sunday school use was built in 1965. Meanwhile the Reformed Church had became part of the United Church of Christ in 1957. In 1970 a fire destroyed the sanctuary, but it was rebuilt the following year.

In 1954—55 the Heidelberg Church provided classroom space pending the completion of the first addition to the Kuip School. In 1968-69 schoolchildren used rooms in both the Heidelberg and Jerusalem churches until the construction of the Robert W. Cope School.

Churches of other denominations are close by. Roman Catholics living in Schwenksville attend St. Mary’s Church at Delphi, north of town. There is a Brethren in Christ church at Graterford, an Episcopal church at Evansburg, a Baptist church at Eagleville, and numerous others.

Keely’s cemetery, now known as Schwenksville cemetery and still in use, originated in 1762, when the heirs of Valentine Keely sold one acre of land for a school and a cemetery. The cemetery now occupies both sides of Limerick Road just outside Schwenksville.

Eden Mennonite Church has a cemetery just ‘north of the borough limits. No cemeteries lie within the borough limits.

In September 1960 the Reading Railroad sponsored occasional "Iron Horse Rambles" to Schwenksville. The trains were pulled by steam locomotives, rare enough in 1960 to attract over one thousand train buffs. Howard Buhman was chairman of the committee that planned for the first Touch of Dutch Day to receive the "ramblers." Features of the day were many exhibits, craft displays, and a chicken dinner, under the direction of Mrs. Hugh Schmidt, before the passengers reboarded the train to return home. For several years the Iron Horse Rambles continued, but eventually the Reading Company discontinued them. Touch of Dutch Day, however, has continued, with some lapses and changes.

Schwenksville had a Literary Society organized in 1877 with the Reverend Nathaniel Grubb as the first president. One of its activities was debating. Recognizing the opposition to secret societies among the Pennsylvania Germans, the Literary Society chose "Should Secret Societies Be Encouraged?" as a debate topic. Albert Bromer and Enos Schwenk took the affirmative side, while A. K. Thomas and G. H. Grater took the negative. Records do not show who won.

The Liberty Comet Band was led by Charles Whitman and was housed in what was known as the "Academy of Music" located on the northern part of Main Street.

After World War I the Schwenksville Improvement Company purchased land along the Perkiomen north of Schwenksville and created Memorial Park to honor soldiers who lost their lives during the war. In its palmier days, Memorial Park had a merry-go-round and a hall where dances were held each weekend. floods and a fire destroyed these attractions.

In the 1920s the town had a movie theater in a building occupied in 1980 by the state liquor store. Miss M. Alice Grebe, a teacher at Schwenksville High School, later supervising principal, played the piano to accompany the silent films.

The Patriotic Order Sons of America was organized nationally in 1847. Washington Camp 387 was formed in Schwenksville in 1889, making the P.O.S. of A. one of the oldest organizations still active in the community. Technically a beneficial lodge that provides its members with illness and death benefits, the P.O.S. of A. has done great good in the community. Among the local organizations receiving help from the P.O.S. of A. are the Perkiomen Valley Student Loan Fund, the Boy and Girl Scouts, and the Schwenksville Community Library. The P.O.S. of A. also gave financial aid to the Schwenksville Fire Company, and, as a result, has been assigned a meeting room in the new firehouse.

Another old organization still active is the Schwenksville branch of the Needlework Guild, founded in 1899, which collects new clothing for the needy.

Schwenksville had a choral society in 1912. Margaret Hocker Hoover in her book Concerning Collegeville (p. 76) mentions that the Choral Society of Schwenksville took part in a May Festival at Ursinus College.

The local Boy Scout troop came into being on July 12, 1915, with John Tallis as the first scoutmaster. The Girl Scout troop, founded by Hannah Keely, was led for many years by Eva Meng.

The Women’s Civic Club of Schwenksville was founded in 1916 and joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1946. The club has carried out many projects for the benefit of the community, notably for the Community Library and the Schwenksville (now Perkiomen Valley) schools.

The Roy S. Leidy Post of the American Legion was organized in 1919. An active Ladies Auxiliary began in 1922.

The Central Perkiomen Rotary Club was chartered in 1931. The club, through its Community Service Committee, provided entertainment and recreation for the youth of the community during and immediately after World War II. It presented vaudeville, minstrel shows, bingo, moving pictures, dances, and outdoor carnivals, and also sponsored baseball and basketball teams. The idea for the Community Service Committee originated with Frank J. Renninger, a charter member of the club. The club purchased a field for community use in Limerick Township just outside of Schwenksville where the Little League teams play baseball. A kitchen and pavilion built there furnish an eating and meeting place for Rotary from May until September, but during the other months of the year, the club meets at the Community Library, with meals prepared by Walter Beltz and profits going to the library.

The Schwenksville Lions Club was established in 1949. In addition to providing eye care to schoolchildren, the blind, and the partially sighted, the Lions sponsor a Cub Scout troop.

The Central Perkiomen Business and Professional Women’s Club began in 1951, working for the advancement of women in business and the professions. Nationally, the organization provides fellowships and scholarships for women. The local group gives scholarships to girls who plan to enter nursing schools.

Perkiomen Valley Council No. 3633 Knights of Columbus was instituted on March 29, 1953, with forty-five charter members. William Reiff was the first Grand Knight. In September 1968 the council purchased the former home of the Schwenksville Item and converted the building into two apartments and two meeting rooms. Formal dedication was held on June 4, 1972. By 1978 the membership had grown to seventy-nine, and the council had undertaken many activities to benefit the community and the churches. The council also has its own scholarship program open to its members, their wives, and their dependents. An active Ladies Auxiliary assists the council.

The Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1956 with the "purpose of advancing the commercial, industrial, and civic interests of the Perkiomen Valley and its trade area." The first president was Howard L. Forrest. The Schwenksville Halloween parade and the annual Community Dinner m the spring are two of the group’s major activities.

The Schwenksville area has attracted many artists. In 1957, in a meeting at the home of Charles Gardner, the Perkiomen Valley Art Center was organized. The original membership of about fifty has grown to eighty-five. The group holds two exhibitions each year at Ursinus College, one in the spring and one in the fall.

In 1959 the Schwenksville Golden Age Club was established. The Reverend Thomas Phillips, then pastor of Heidelberg Church, was instrumental in organizing the group. The original membership of 23 has grown to 173. The club celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 1979 with ten charter members still living. The Golden Age Club meets monthly throughout the year in the Schwenksville Community Library. In the summer the members sometimes take day trips to points of interest.

Protecting and developing the resources of the Perkiomen Valley is the goal of the Perkiomen Valley Watershed Association, approved as a Montgomery County corporation on January 15, 1965. The first president was Ronald Eastwood, one of eight charter members. The association has many activities, including a rainfall and flood-warning network, a water quality project, and a resource library. Its headquarters is in Evansburg State Park.

The Perk Valley Jaycees, chartered in 1972, is a part of a sixty-year-old national organization for young men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six. Their "triad of involvement" includes individual development—the person—community service, and family development. This organization has carried out many projects: senior citizens’ bus trips, the Lower Frederick Township park development, and the awards program for Distinguished Service, Distinguished Citizen, and Outstanding Firefighter, among others.

The Central Perkiomen Historical Society, founded in 1977, has a fourfold purpose: (1) to encourage local historical research and disseminate the results, (2) to promote historical activities in the community, (3) to encourage the preservation of memorabilia relating to the area, (4) to encourage the preservation of historic sites and structures in the area. The first president of the society was Mary Beltz Kehs.

The twentieth-century heir to the Liberty Cornet Band is the Schwenksville Community Band organized in March 1979 by Mayor Donald Garrell. Starting with eighteen members, the band has grown steadily. It has frequently played at community events since its first appearance at the Memorial Day observance in 1979.

A 1980 PERSPECTIVE

Schwenksville is primarily a residential community. Much of the business and industry that thrived here for a time has disappeared since the automobile made access to more distant employment and shopping easier. The most recent business to leave town was Renninger’s Market, established in 1930, which tmoved to Perkiomen Township in 1975. Two banks, Schmoyer's Lumber Company (founded under another name in 1869), and a number of smaller businesses constitute the commercial interests of the town.

Despite its low tax base, Schwenksville has maintained adequet municipal services, partly because of the nature of the Pennsylvania Dutch people, who believein economy and hard work. In education, Schwenksville saw the advantages of joining with Lower Frederick and Perkiomen townships in 1925 to equalize the tax burden, which had been much heavier in Schwenksville than in the adjoining areas.

Main Street has several fine examples of Victorian architecture. The Schwenksville Item reported on December 20, 1979, that a planning consultant attending a meeting of Borough Council recommendedt adding a new historic and preservation area to the borough’s zoning code. Such a change would maintain the character and structure of some of the Victorian homes while allowing their use for purposes other than residential.

The consultant also suggested provisions for industrial or mobile-home zoning, housing for the elderly, a new business-and-professional zone, and a limit on the height of buildings that might block the view of the Perkiomen Creek.

Schwenksville’s largest problem with future development is the small amount of unoccupied land within the borough limits. Unless territory is added, as in 1972, the borough will remain much as it is.

Robert W. Cope

Retired Assistant Superintendent

Perkiomen Valley Schools

George Albright Jane S. Cope
Joseph and Mildred Bechtel Mary Beltz Kehs
Walter and Alice Beltz Joseph McMahon

Oscar Vogt

Heidelberg United Church of Christ, 1975-76. Booklet for members.

Hoover, Margaret Hocker. Concerning Collegeville.Chestnut Hill, Pa., 1966.

Kebs, Mary Beltz. Schwenksville Past and Present. Issued by the Bicentennial Committee of the Borough of Schwenksville, 1975.

Patriotic Onrler Sons of America. Booklet issued by Pennsylvania State Camp of P.O.S.of A., Philadelphia, n.d.

Perkiomen Valley Knights of Columbus, Council No. 3633, 25th Anniveisary Banquet. Historical booklet, 1978.

Schwenk, Enos S. and John K. Genealogy of the Schwenk Family. Revised and enlarged by Ralph Beaver Strassburger. Norristown: Norristown Press, 1916 and 1929.

Schwenksville. Hotel Registers, 1911-28.

Schwenksville Borough Comprehensive Plan. Norristown:

Montgomery County Planning Commission, 1970.

Schwenksville Community Library Dedication Program,1957.

Schwenksville Item, 75th anniversary edition, February 11, 1954; also issue of December 10, 1979.

Smith, Marion K., and Brinkman, Kenneth, comp. "The Schwenksville Story, 1740-1903—1954."

Swinehart, Minerva Schwenk. "Reminiscences on the History of Schwenksville." Transcript of talk given at Central Perkiomen Rotary Club, December 11, 1956.

Last Updated 03/03/2008

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