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B+History
History · Boswell

Boswell dates to 1901, and 30% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 72% of U.S. towns. What drives it

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 90 buildings. Below: 17 old photos and papers, maps from 1910 on, and the census since 1910.

1901founded
1on the National Register
30%homes built before 1940
17old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Boswell’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Boswell began

When was Boswell founded?

1901

Boswell dates its founding to 1901 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1910.

First census: 1,878 in 19102020 census: 1,224125 years

How historic is Boswell?

B+

More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1902.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Boswell’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Boswell is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Boswell’s overall grade.
Founding era1901, from Wikidata: founded 1900–1944, an older era than 9% of U.S. townsDHomes built before 194030.4% of homes (±7.5) · typical PA town 17.7% · U.S. 8.4%ANational Register1 listing, 90 historic buildings, 781 per 10,000 residents · typical PA town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4A
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 72%
NewerOlder

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 Boswell’s 781 sits above most of its state (96% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 90 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.5 points). Two sources give 1901.

Founding year: Wikidata (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 Boswell’s past

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

A historic districtThe Boswell Historic District takes in 90 historic buildings.A town in old photos17 old photos, postcards and papers, 1933–1992.Boom and bustPeaked at 2,168 in 1920; 1,224 people lived here in 2020.On the map since 19136 editions of the USGS map, 1913 to 1993. Watch Boswell change.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

1 listing protects 90 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
90
each building in a district counts
first listed
1994
Boswell Historic District
Boswell Historic District
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Late Victorian1
Colonial Revival1
Boswell Historic DistrictLate Victorian

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

By decade

Boswell, decade by decade

4 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s–1980s5 items
GENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) FACADES OF SCHOOL, LOOKING NORTHWEST (For a brief history of Boswell and a descri…1933GENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) FACADES OF SCHO…GENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH) FACADE OF CHURCH, LOOKING NORTH (For a brief history of Boswell and a description of Sts. …1933GENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH) FACADE OF CHURCH, LOOKIN…Boswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown05-12-19391939Boswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown05-12-1939Boswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown 09-12-19671967Boswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown 09-12-1967Praying Mantis statue at Second Time Around, Route 301984Praying Mantis statue at Second Time Around, Route 30
1990s5 items
BRICK CONSTRUCTED COMPANY HOUSES ON JUNIATA STREET, LOOKING NORTHEAST - Town of Boswell1992BRICK CONSTRUCTED COMPANY HOUSES ON JUNIATA STREET, L…EAST (MAIN) FACADE OF COMPANY OFFICE, LOOKING NORTHWEST - Merchants Coal Company, Office, Quemahoning Street and Morris…1992EAST (MAIN) FACADE OF COMPANY OFFICE, LOOKING NORTHWE…GENERAL VIEW OF STONE-CONSTRUCTED POWERHOUSE, LOOKING NORTH - Merchants Coal Company, Powerhouse, Atkinson Way and Quem…1992GENERAL VIEW OF STONE-CONSTRUCTED POWERHOUSE, LOOKING…SOUTH AND EAST (MAIN) FACADE OF COMPANY STORE, LOOKING NORTHWEST; THE STONE BUILDING TO THE RIGHT IS THE BANK - Merchan…1992SOUTH AND EAST (MAIN) FACADE OF COMPANY STORE, LOOKIN…STONE-CONSTRUCTED COMPANY HOUSES ON QUEMAHONING STREET; THESE ARE DOUBLE HOUSES BUILT FOR COMPANY MANAGERS, LOOKING NOR…1992STONE-CONSTRUCTED COMPANY HOUSES ON QUEMAHONING STREE…
Date unknown7 to date
USGSDate?USGSTown of BoswellDate?Town of BoswellMerchants Coal Company, Office, Quemahoning Street & Morris AvenueDate?Merchants Coal Company, Office, Quemahoning Street & …Merchants Coal Company, Store, Morris Avenue & Stonycreek StreetDate?Merchants Coal Company, Store, Morris Avenue & Stonyc…Merchants Coal Company, Powerhouse, Atkinson Way & Quemahoning CreekDate?Merchants Coal Company, Powerhouse, Atkinson Way & Qu…Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, Quemahoning StreetDate?Saints Peter & Paul Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic C…Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church School, Stonycreek Street & Hower AvenueDate?Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church School, Stonyc…
Today7 recent
PA 601 sb in Boswell (2), May 20242024PA 601 sb in Boswell (2), May 2024PA 601 sb in Boswell (1), May 20242024PA 601 sb in Boswell (1), May 2024Boswell, PA post office, May 20242024Boswell, PA post office, May 2024Boswell Pennsylvania Coal Mine Panoramic2011Boswell Pennsylvania Coal Mine PanoramicRoaring run scout camp2009Roaring run scout campGreen Gables Theather summer stock2007Green Gables Theather summer stockBospower2006Bospower
People over time

Boswell, census by census

05001,0001,5002,000192019401960198020002020Peak: 2,168

Peaked at 2,168 in 1920; 1,224 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boswell’s Wikipedia page.

The story

How Boswell came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Boswell.

Read it all →

Boswell was settled in 1901 and incorporated as a borough on February 22, 1904. The community's founder was Thomas Taylor Boswell, the first president and supervisor of the Merchants Coal Company. Mr. Boswell's company purchased 14,000 acres (57 km2) of mineral rights under local farmland and laid out 1,600 lots for coal company houses to house the miners for its new deep coal mine just to the north. Merchants Coal, and the related Orenda Coal, were subsidiaries of Hillman Coal and Coke Company of Pittsburgh, the same firm that built the neighboring town of Jerome, Pennsylvania.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Boswell, 1901 to 1992

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1901
    FoundingBoswell is established
  3. 1902Post officeThe Boswell post office opens
  4. 1913On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 2,168
  6. 1933In the archiveGENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) FACADES OF SCHOOL, LOOKING NORTHWEST (For a brief h…
  7. 1967In the archiveBoswell-Jenner Twp.-Jennerstown 09-12-1967
  8. 1984In the archivePraying Mantis statue at Second Time Around, Route 30
  9. 1992In the archiveBRICK CONSTRUCTED COMPANY HOUSES ON JUNIATA STREET, LOOKING NORTHEAST - Town of Boswell
On the map

Boswell on the map, 1913 to 1993

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

Boswell on the 1913 USGS mapBoswell on the 1944 USGS mapBoswell on the 1967 USGS mapBoswell on the 1973 USGS mapBoswell on the 1981 USGS mapBoswell on the 1993 USGS map1913Somerset 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 Boswell.

Every building

Boswell, building by building, 1910–1916

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Boswell fire insurance map, 1910, sheet 11910Sheet 1 of 2
Edition
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

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.

GENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) FACADES OF SCHOOL, LOOKING NORTHWEST (For a brief history of Boswell and a descri…
Retake this viewGENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) FACADES OF SCHOOL, LOOKING NORTHWEST (For a brief history of Boswell and a descri…, 1933

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

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Boswell

Nobody well known was born in Boswell itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Carroll BakerAmerican actress · b. 1931
Steve DitkoAmerican comics artist · b. 1927
Alex AzarAmerican politician · b. 1967
Michael NovakAmerican theologian, philosopher, journalist, n… · b. 1933
T
Tim KazurinskyAmerican actor · b. 1950
Ashley MillerAmerican screenwriter and producer · b. 1971
Help out

Finish Boswell’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
4 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo7 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewGENERAL VIEW OF MAIN (SOUTH AND EAST) F…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Boswell’s history

What year was Boswell founded?

In 1901, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Boswell’s post office opened in 1902, and the census of 1910 counted 1,878 people here.

How does Boswell rank for history?

Boswell is more historic than 72% 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.

What is on the National Register in Boswell?

One place: the Boswell Historic District (listed 1994).

How old are the homes in Boswell?

30% of Boswell’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1955.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (18), the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.