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Pottstown

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a borough of Montgomery (disambiguation)|Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Schuylkill river, 40 m. N.W. of Philadelphia. Pop. (1906, estimate), 13,942. Pottstown is served by the Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by electric lines to neighbouring towns. In the borough is the Hill School (1851), an excellent secondary school for boys. There is trade with the surrounding country, which is devoted to farming and dairying and abounds in iron ore and limestone, but the principal industry is the manufacture of iron and steel, the first commercially important iron furnaces in Pennsylvania having been established near the site of Pottstown in 1716-1718. In 1905 the factory products were valued at $8,144,723 (10.7% more than in 1900). Three miles from Pottstown, in an amusement park, are the "ringing rocks," which cover about an acre, and have varying tones when struck, so that tunes may be played upon them. Pottstown was settled and laid out in 1752 and was named Pottsgrove in honour of its founder, John Potts (1710-1768); in 1815 it was incorporated as a borough and in 1829 the present name was adopted.