Montgomery Borough

Montgomery Borough. . , Where you are standing, nestled on the edge of the Black Hole Valley, beneath the shadow of Penny Hill, lies the borough of Montgomery. Although the small factory town was founded in 1887, settlement of the area where Black Hole Creek meets the West Branch of the Susquehanna River was settled much earlier. Native peoples like the Susquehannock would have originally lived in the area, until replaced in the early eighteenth century by the Lenape people. It is believed that a native village once stood along the Black Hole Creek near Brook Street., First Settlers: , One of the first European settlers of the Black Hole Valley was Cornelius Lowe, who moved here in 1778. Due to the Big Runaway, when Loyalists and their Native allies drove all the pioneer families from the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna Valley, permanent settlement of the Black Hole Valley did not occur until after the Revolutionary War. The same year the Revolution ended, in 1783, John Lawson began farming the area where the borough now lies. The Black Hole Creek provided water for several mills over the years starting with the first grist mill, built by Nicolas Shaffer in 1784. The Montgomery area, originally within Washington Township in Northumberland County, later became Clinton Township, Lycoming County in 1825., How Montgomery got its Name: , Throughout the years, the area was known as Black Hole, Clinton Mills, and Clintonville. In 1856, Robert Montgomery established a tavern at the corner of Montgomery and Main Streets. When the Philadelphia and Erie (later Pennsylvania)Rail Road came through town, he donated the land for the first train station, so they named the place "Montgomery Station" in honor of him. It took a long time before Montgomery Station developed into an independent town. Parts of what is now the borough included farm fields for most of the nineteenth century. Only after significant growth of local factories and an increase in housing for workers did area citizens decide to incorporate a town; the borough of Montgomery was incorporated March 27, 1887., [Photo captions, clockwise from bottom left, read] , . Robert Montgomery operated this tavern in the ni[n]eteenth century and gave Montgomery its name. The building was razed in the 1970s and was replaced by a gas station., . In the 1870s Montgomery was still a very small community. The Planing Mill and Houston's Machine shop were the only factories in town at the time., . This view taken around the turn of the century shows several local businesses and the Clinton Baptist Church., . This pre-1923 photo shows an unpaved Main Street., . The First National Bank (right) was built in 1923 and as of 2024 houses the Montgomery Area Public Library and the Montgomery Area Historical Society.