Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 5 old photos and papers from 1850 on and old-book passages.
The Gap post office opened in 1804, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Descriptions - Pennsylvania - Lancaster County - ED 36-1…
In the archiveSadsbury Meeting 1896
Born hereCharles Coates Walker is born here
In the archiveGap PA Presby PHS230
In the archiveDETAIL VIEW- STONE END, FOREBAY, AND OVERHANG - Barn, Route 572 vicinity
In the archiveAmish life in Lancaster, PennsylvaniaFrom Wikipedia’s history of Gap.
Gap was named for its location at a low pass through Mine Ridge. Gap has a history which can be dated as far back as William Penn's first visits to the area. Isaac Taylor erected the first house in what would become Gap in 1747. The area around Gap had a copper mine and what at the time were the only nickel mines in the United States.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Gap, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Among the schools decided upon was “one at Locust Gap.” This I find was erected near Locust Gav Junction, of today, which at that date was Locust Gap, and was completed in 1841, but I have been unable to ecure any detailed description of the building. This seems to have sufficed for the needs of the community for six years, when a larger building was erected on the Reading Turnpike about mid-way between the Red Bridge and the present village of Dooleyville and was in-tended to serve the entire section, including the present Mount Carmel.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
1832—The first industry in the town, a saw-mill, was erected by Samuel, William and Joseph Casper, of Sunbury, on Big Shamokin Creek, about three hundred yards north of the present ‘Locust Gap Junction station on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 1834—-On Monday, March 3, the lumber for the first house built in the present borough fo Shamokin, was prepared at this Locust Gap mill by Ziba Bird, who had purchasde the mill. This house was erected by and for Mr. Bird and his family.
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.
5 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Gap’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Gap post office opened in 1804, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 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.
2015