The story
Read it all →How Allen Township came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Allen Township.
Kreidersville Covered Bridge, built in 1839, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
BHistory
History · Allen Township
14% of Allen Township’s homes were built before 1940
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns · #614 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Kreiderville Covered Bridge. Below: maps from 1939 on and the census since 2000.
1on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Quick answers
About Allen Township’s history
How historic is Allen Township?
B
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 59% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
History grade
What drives Allen Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Allen Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #614 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Allen Township’s overall grade.
Founding eraNo founding year we can rely on, so the grade uses the other two–Homes built before 194013.6% of homes (±7.3) · typical PA town 17.7% · U.S. 8.4%BNational Register1 listing, 1.8 per 10,000 residents · typical PA town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4B−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 59%
NewerOlder
Pennsylvania towns of 2,500+ (1,035)Ahead of 41%
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Allen Township’s 1.8 sits near the middle of its state (56% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.3 points).
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Allen Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Allen Township’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Allen Township’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Allen Township in 1879
Passages that mention Allen Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Genealogies, necrology, and reminiscences of the "Irish settlement," or A record of those Scotch-Irish Presbyterian families who were the first settlers in the "Forks of Delaware," now Northampton County, Pennsylvania--a sequel to the "History of the Alle1879Read the page →
Read the text
Allen Township, Schoolhouse, March 19th, 1808. This evening the constitutional time of meeting for the Franklin Society. The following persons appeared, viz., Mr. Henry Epple, Andrew Hagenbuch, and John Moore ; but as there was not a quorum, they adjourned without doing any business.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Allen Township, 1777 to 1939
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 18th century
- 1777
Born hereGeorge Wolf is born here - 19th century
- 1805Post officeThe Kreidersville post office opens
- 20th century
- 1907Post officeThe Kreidersville post office closes
- 1939Born hereJohn Stoffa is born here
- 1939
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
Allen Township, decade by decade
2026
2025
2025
2025
2014On the map
Allen Township on the map, 1939 to 1992
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Allen Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1939Allentown sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Allen Township.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Allen Township
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1980
Kreiderville Covered Bridge
Structures
Architectural styles listings
Burr Truss1
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Allen Township, census by census
Grew from 2,630 people in 2000 to 5,462 in 2020.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Allen Township’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Allen Township
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Another post office, Kreidersville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Hamlets and corners on the map
HowertownKreidersville
Gone or out of use
Lincoln Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Allen Township
Fairview
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Allen Township’s history
How does Allen Township rank for history?
Allen Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #614 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Allen Township?
One place: the Kreiderville Covered Bridge (listed 1980).
How old are the homes in Allen Township?
14% of Allen Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.3 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 2001.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.