Founding year: the first Bally post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1912.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bally’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bally is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bally’s overall grade.
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 Bally’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.8 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1912.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 Bally’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bally was originally called Goshenhoppen, possibly deriving from an Indigenous word meaning "meeting place". Others claim the name derives from German settlers calling the area their haven or Hafen in German, eventually becoming Goshenhoppen. Mennonites and Catholics settled in the area in the early 18th century, creating one of colonial Pennsylvania's most notable religious communities.
Passages that mention Bally, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, comp. by Morton L. Montgomery ..1909 · page 523Read the page →
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William B. Bechtel was born June 20, 1835. He was the first merchant to open a general store in Bally, and after carrying on the business until 1898, sold it and the premises to his son, while he himself engaged in the manufacture of paper, under the name of the West Branch Paper Mill, in a mill located three miles east of the town, and this he continued until his death, July 15, 1903. He established the postoffice at Bally; it has continued in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, comp. by Morton L. Montgomery ..1909 · page 33Read the page →
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The next township to take up the matter successfully was Washington and in 1908 the State Department looked after the construction of a new highway from Barto to Bally and thence toward Shultzville and Shultz's grist-mill, upward of three miles. The total cost, including fine concrete bridge, was about $43,000, of which the county paid one-eighth and the township one-eighth (the reduced propor-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Berks county in Pennsylvania1886 · page 1004Read the page →
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north a hardware-store, begun in 1869, by Joseph Diehl, is carried on by H. M. Diehl & Bro. A post-office was established at Churchville in October, 1883, with the name of Bally, and of which Wm. Bechtel was the first postmaster. February 15, 1886, Aug. Kuhn succeeded him. A daily mail is supplied. The village has at present over three hundred in-
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
Bally, 1745 to 1989
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Bally’s history
What year was Bally founded?
The Bally post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1912.
How does Bally rank for history?
Bally is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Bally?
24% of Bally’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1960.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (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.
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