Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1853.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gallitzin’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gallitzin is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gallitzin’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 Gallitzin’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 B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.7 points). Two sources give 1849.
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 Gallitzin’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Dutch traders and trappers friendly to the Susquehannock may have visited the region about 1620, as the town sits atop a mountain pass through which the ancient Amerindian trails (later renamed the Kittanning Path) transited. The plateau atop the escarpment was the domain of the Iroquoian confederations of the Erie people and the Susquehannock peoples, both sharing the byways and hunting lands of the Allegheny Mountains until about the mid-1650s. The Susquehannock and Erie people are known to have traded through the area, one of the few avenues the Erie, who dominated the hunting lands west of the Alleghenies, had to obtain by firearms; though, by all accounts, all the tribes in contact with the numerous Erie were reluctant to trade them firearms. Further, Susquehannocks are quoted to have expected 800 Erie warriors in 1662 to join in their war with the Iroquois. By 1675, both the Sus…
Passages that mention Gallitzin, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania1907 · page 358Read the page →
Read the text
East of the high bridge, a mile and a half west of Gallitzin, the New Portage took a southeasterly course and leaving the Pennsylvania, passed through the southerly part of Gallitzin and through the tunnel, which was made before the tunnel on the Pennsylvania road was finished, the two being within a few hundred yards of each other at the east end. After passing through the tunnel the New Portage road lay on the south side of. the Allegrippus Gulch, and the Pennsylvania on the other.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Cambria County, Pennsylvania1907 · page 587Read the page →
Read the text
The old Pennsylvania railroad tunnel at Gallitzin was commenced October 14, 1851, by Thomas Seabrooke, the principal engineer. It is 3,612 feet in length, and was used as a double track roadway until 1898, when the cars and engines being made too large to allow for two tracks, the Portage tunnel, wliich was completed about 1855, was relined and two tracks laid through it for the eastbound traffic. Its length is 1,630 feet.
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
Gallitzin, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
In 1849, according to Wikidata. Gallitzin’s post office opened in 1853.
How does Gallitzin rank for history?
Gallitzin is more historic than 74% 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 Gallitzin?
37% of Gallitzin’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1949.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2013
2009
2006