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Bird-in-Hand PA Keystone Marker on PA 340 EBPhoto: Dough4872 · CC BY-SA 4.0
–Not graded
History · Bird-in-Hand

Bird-in-Hand’s post office opened in 1873, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1906 on, and old-book passages.

1873first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Bird-in-Hand’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Bird-in-Hand began

When was Bird-in-Hand founded?

1873

The Bird-in-Hand post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 427153 years
Founding year: the first Bird-in-Hand post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bird-in-Hand’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19067 editions of the USGS map, 1906 to 1992. Watch Bird-in-Hand change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bird-in-Hand’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bird-in-Hand’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewREAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Bird-in-Hand on the map, 1906 to 1992

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bird-in-Hand. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Bird-in-Hand on the 1906 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1941 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1956 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1969 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1975 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1987 USGS mapBird-in-Hand on the 1992 USGS map1906New Holland sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bird-in-Hand.

The story

How Bird-in-Hand came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bird-in-Hand.

Read it all →

The area's first inhabitants were Native American Shawnee and Susquehannock people.

The earliest European settlers of what was to become Bird-in-Hand were Quakers and Swiss Mennonites. James Smith was the first of the Quakers known to have settled in the area, arriving by the year 1715. William and Dorothy McNabb were pioneer landowners and the owners of the original Bird-in-Hand Hotel. The Quakers built a meetinghouse and two-story academy, which stands today, next to the present-day Bird-in-Hand fire company.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Bird-in-Hand in 1883

Passages that mention Bird-in-Hand, cut from the printed page as they were published.

West Enterprise.— This village is situated on a road leading from the old road at Smoketown to the Horse-Shoe road, one and a half miles northwest of Bird-in-Hand. The railroad station and pust-oflice is Wituier's. This village is"* of recent origin, having all been built since the building of the …
History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania1883Read the page →
Read the text

West Enterprise.— This village is situated on a road leading from the old road at Smoketown to the Horse-Shoe road, one and a half miles northwest of Bird-in-Hand. The railroad station and pust-oflice is Wituier's. This village is"* of recent origin, having all been built since the building of the PeniisyTvania Railroad, in 1836. It is quite a thriving place, contains two large general stores, a fine c:ilii-

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

Bird-in-Hand, 1842 to 1980

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1842Born hereEliphalet Oram Lyte is born here
  3. 20th century
  4. 1906On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1933In the archiveREAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State Route 340, Bird in Hand, Lancaster County, PA
  6. 1980In the archiveAmish life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
By decade

Bird-in-Hand, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s2 items
REAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State Route 340, Bird in Hand, Lancaster County, PA1933REAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State Route 340, Bir…SIDE ELEVATION WITH SLIT VENTILATORS - Barn, State Route 340, Bird in Hand, Lancaster County, PA1933SIDE ELEVATION WITH SLIT VENTILATORS - Barn, State Ro…
1940s–1970snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1980s2 items
Amish life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania1980Amish life in Lancaster, PennsylvaniaAmish life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania1980Amish life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today2 recent
Weavertown One Room School2008Weavertown One Room SchoolThe Old Village Store Hardware and fuel pumps2005The Old Village Store Hardware and fuel pumps
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

REAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State Route 340, Bird in Hand, Lancaster County, PA
Retake this viewREAR AND SIDE ELEVATIONS - Barn, State Route 340, Bird in Hand, Lancaster County, PA, 1933

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Bird-in-Hand’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

SmoketownIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRonksIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bird-in-Hand’s history

What year was Bird-in-Hand founded?

The Bird-in-Hand post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.