Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Fredericksburg

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
Eagle Hotel, Fredericksburg, LebCo PAPhoto: Jack on Flickr · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
History · Fredericksburg

25% of Fredericksburg’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1891 on and old-book passages.

0on the National Register
25%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Jack on Flickr · CC BY-SA 2.0

What stands out about Fredericksburg’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Fredericksburg are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18916 editions of the USGS map, 1891 to 1999. Watch Fredericksburg change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fredericksburg’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fredericksburg’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Fredericksburg on the map, 1891 to 1999

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

Fredericksburg on the 1891 USGS mapFredericksburg on the 1943 USGS mapFredericksburg on the 1955 USGS mapFredericksburg on the 1969 USGS mapFredericksburg on the 1977 USGS mapFredericksburg on the 1999 USGS map1891Lebanon 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 Fredericksburg.

The story

How Fredericksburg came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fredericksburg.

Read it all →

Fredericksburg was originally called "Stumptown" after a disreputable settler named Frederick Stump, who founded the town in 1755, and reportedly massacred an encampment of ten inebriated Indians one winter and sent their bodies down the Susquehanna.

Fredericksburg was the birthplace of James Lick, a pianomaker who moved to San Francisco and invested in real estate just before the Gold Rush. Lick had become the wealthiest man in California by the time of his death, leaving his large fortune to philanthropic causes.

Fredericksburg was the birthplace of Clayton Mark, the prominent steel magnate, in 1858. Mark was the founder of the planned worker community of Marktown, Indiana.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fredericksburg in 1909

Passages that mention Fredericksburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Fredericksburg has had no railroads, though at three different periods great hopes were entertained of getting them. As early as 1836 an act was passed by the assembly at Harrisburg towards incorporating a company to build a railway by way of Fredericksburg from Reading to Harrisburg. It was to be …
Stories of old Stumpstown1909Read the page →
Read the text

Fredericksburg has had no railroads, though at three different periods great hopes were entertained of getting them. As early as 1836 an act was passed by the assembly at Harrisburg towards incorporating a company to build a railway by way of Fredericksburg from Reading to Harrisburg. It was to be known as the “Reading, Fredericksburg and Susquehanna Railroad.” Governor Ritner approved the act on the i6th of June, 1836, and appointed a board of commissioners, thirty in

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Another of the earliest free-school teachers in the new school house built in 1852 at Fredericksburg, was Mr. Freeman Gross, who is still remembered with reverence and affection as a model schoolmaster. Fie came to this county in 1840, and was known as a New York “Yankee.”
Stories of old Stumpstown1909Read the page →
Read the text

Another of the earliest free-school teachers in the new school house built in 1852 at Fredericksburg, was Mr. Freeman Gross, who is still remembered with reverence and affection as a model schoolmaster. Fie came to this county in 1840, and was known as a New York “Yankee.”

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.

By decade

Fredericksburg, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Fredericksburg, PA post office, Sept. 20252025Fredericksburg, PA post office, Sept. 2025Farmers Pride Airport, Fredericksburg, PA, Sept. 20252025Farmers Pride Airport, Fredericksburg, PA, Sept. 2025Bethel Township, Lebanon County, PA Municipal Building, Sept. 20252025Bethel Township, Lebanon County, PA Municipal Buildin…2022-09-09 17 30 54 UTC minus 4 Aerial view of northeastern Lebanon County in Pennsylvania, centered on Bethel Township20222022-09-09 17 30 54 UTC minus 4 Aerial view of northe…Lickmonument2010LickmonumentEagle Hotel, Fredericksburg, LebCo PA2008Eagle Hotel, Fredericksburg, LebCo PA

Questions about Fredericksburg’s history

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.