Mount Joy, Pennsylvania
Name and origin
The name is often shortened to "Mt Joy", as in Mencken (1963). However, citizens of the town often point out that this abbreviation is not proper because the town is not named for a mountain but is named after the "Good Ship" Mountjoy which famously broke a Catholic siege during the Siege of Derry. Due to the early settlement of the Protestant Scots-Irish in this region of Pennsylvania, many of the municipalities in the area were given names common to the North of Ireland, such as Derry Township, Londonderry Township, South Londonderry Township, Mount Joy Township, East Donegal Township, West Donegal Township, and Rapho Township.
Mount Joy is often named in lists of "delightfully-named towns" in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, along with Intercourse, Blue Ball, Lititz, Bareville, Bird-in-Hand and Paradise.
General information
- ZIP code: 17552
- Area code: 717
- Local phone codes: 492, 653, 928
Geography
Mount Joy is located in northwestern Lancaster County at 40°6′36″N 76°30′40″W / 40.11000°N 76.51111°W (40.109895, -76.510977). Pennsylvania Route 230 passes through the center of town as Main Street, leading southeast 12 miles (19 km) to Lancaster, the county seat, and northwest 6 miles (10 km) to Elizabethtown. Harrisburg, the state capital, is 25 miles (40 km) to the northwest via PA-230. PA-772 crosses PA-230 west of the borough center and leads northeast 7 miles (11 km) to Manheim and southwest 5 miles (8 km) to Marietta on the Susquehanna River.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.3 km), of which 0.02 square miles (0.04 km), or 0.64%, are water. Little Chiques Creek, a south-flowing tributary of Chiques Creek and part of the Susquehanna River watershed, crosses the eastern side of the borough.
In the 1970s, Mount Joy was chosen as the site of one of ten Decision Information Distribution System radio stations, designed to alert the public of an enemy attack. The system was never implemented and the station was not built.
Demographics
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 1,729 | — | |
| 1870 | 1,896 | 9.7% | |
| 1880 | 2,058 | 8.5% | |
| 1890 | 1,848 | −10.2% | |
| 1900 | 2,018 | 9.2% | |
| 1910 | 2,166 | 7.3% | |
| 1920 | 2,192 | 1.2% | |
| 1930 | 2,716 | 23.9% | |
| 1940 | 2,855 | 5.1% | |
| 1950 | 3,006 | 5.3% | |
| 1960 | 3,292 | 9.5% | |
| 1970 | 5,041 | 53.1% | |
| 1980 | 5,680 | 12.7% | |
| 1990 | 6,398 | 12.6% | |
| 2000 | 6,765 | 5.7% | |
| 2010 | 7,410 | 9.5% | |
| 2020 | 8,346 | 12.6% | |
| 2021 (est.) | 8,323 | −0.3% | |
| Sources: | |||
The 2010 United States Census reports the following demographics for Mount Joy Borough:
- Total population: 7,410
- Male: 3,624
- Female: 3,786
- Hispanic or Latino: 549
- White: 6,809
- African American: 187
- Asian: 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native: 20
- Identified by two or more: 170
Museums and historic sites
- Central Hotel
- Donegal Mills Plantation
- George Brown's Sons Cotton and Woolen Mill
- Nissly Swiss Chocolate Company
Notable people
- Kaufman Thuma "K.T." Keller, president and CEO, Chrysler Corporation
- Joseph F. Knipe, brigadier general, 46th PA Infantry, during the American Civil War
- Donald Kraybill, researcher and author on Anabaptist groups
- Clarence Charles Newcomer (1923–2005), United States federal judge
- Winfred Trexler Root, historian
- Mike Sarbaugh, coach, New York Mets
- Bruce Sutter, Major League Baseball pitcher and National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inductee
Notes
- ^ "ArcGIS REST Services Directory". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
- ^ "Census Population API". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved Oct 12, 2022.
- ^ Bureau, US Census. "City and Town Population Totals: 2020-2021". Census.gov. US Census Bureau. Retrieved 9 July 2022.
{{cite web}}:|last1=has generic name (help) - ^ Mencken (1963) p.653. Quote:
In the years since then many of these names have been changed to more elegant ones, and others have vanished with the ghost towns they adorned, but not a few still hang on. Indeed, there are plenty of lovely specimens to match them in the East, in regions that were also frontier in their days, e.g., the famous cluster in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania: Bird in Hand, Bareville, Blue Ball, Mt. Joy, Intercourse and Paradise.
- ^ "History of Mount Joy". Mount Joy Historical Society. Mount Joy Historical Society. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
- ^ Ward's quarterly (1965) p.109 quote:
...in such delightfully-named towns in Pennsylvania Dutchland as his native Mount Joy, and neighboring Lititz, Blue Ball, Bareville, Intercourse, Bird in Hand, and Paradise.
- ^ Anderson (1979) p.214 quote:
"...but anyone who names their towns Mount Joy, Intercourse, and Blue Ball can't be all bad. Obviously they have more on their minds than just religion."
- ^ Museums Association (2006) p.61 quote:
Which brings us to Intercourse. You can imagine my delight when I found out that the Amish call the town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, their home. There seems to be a lot of explanations from locals trying to pass off the name as a bastardisation of 'Enter Course' and so on, but seeing as there are other local towns called Blue Ball, Bird In Hand, and Mount Joy, I suspect that the person responsible had a very juvenile sense of humour. The town sits in upstate Pennsylvania and is a tourist trap for anyone even remotely curious about the Amish way of life.
- ^ Rand McNally and Company (1978) p.52
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2011-02-12. Retrieved 2011-04-23.
- ^ "2019 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
- ^ "Census of Population and Housing". U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
- ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "Incorporated Places and Minor Civil Divisions Datasets: Subcounty Resident Population Estimates: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2012". Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 11 June 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
- ^ "Mount Joy (borough) QuickFacts". Population Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- ^ 2010 United States Census Community Data Archived 2012-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Clarence Charles Newcomer at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
References
- Anderson, William Charles (1979) Home Sweet Home Has Wheels: Or, Please Don't Tailgate the Real Estate
- Mencken, Henry Louis; McDavid, Raven Ioor (1963). The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States, Volume 1.
- Museums Association (2006) The Museums journal, Volume 106, Issues 1-6, Indexes to papers read before the Museums Association, 1890–1909. Compiled by Charles Madeley.
- Rand McNally and Company (1978) Vacation & Travel Guide
- Ward's Quarterly, Volume 1, 1965
External links
| Authority control databases: Geographic |
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