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History · Kempton

Kempton’s post office opened in 1881, and 58% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1909 on and old-book passages.

1881first post office
0on the National Register
58%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Kempton began

When was Kempton founded?

1881

The Kempton post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 159145 years
Founding year: the first Kempton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Kempton’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 Kempton are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Kempton’s homes were built before 1938.On the map since 19096 editions of the USGS map, 1909 to 1976. Watch Kempton change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kempton’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Kempton, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Kempton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Its first post office opened in 1881. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 169 to 159 (-6%).

On the map

Kempton on the map, 1909 to 1976

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

Kempton on the 1909 USGS mapKempton on the 1911 USGS mapKempton on the 1944 USGS mapKempton on the 1956 USGS mapKempton on the 1969 USGS mapKempton on the 1976 USGS map1909Hamburg 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 Kempton.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Kempton, 1886–1909

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

Kempton, the next place in point of size, is on the railroad, twenty-four miles from Reading. It is a station with good sidings and a fine Y track. An express-office is also maintained. The place is located on lands formerly owned by W. G. Kemp, hence its name. It dates its existence from 1874, and…
History of Berks county in Pennsylvania1886 · page 1072Read the page →
Read the text

Kempton, the next place in point of size, is on the railroad, twenty-four miles from Reading. It is a station with good sidings and a fine Y track. An express-office is also maintained. The place is located on lands formerly owned by W. G. Kemp, hence its name. It dates its existence from 1874, and contains a fine grain warehouse, kept by M. C. Deitrich

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in the county is twenty-eight miles, and the stations (not including flag-stations) are Berkeley, Maiden-creek, Evansville, Moselem, Virginsville, Lenhartsville, Kempton. The report of business over the road is included in the general report of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company.
History of Berks county in Pennsylvania1886 · page 462Read the page →
Read the text

in the county is twenty-eight miles, and the stations (not including flag-stations) are Berkeley, Maiden-creek, Evansville, Moselem, Virginsville, Lenhartsville, Kempton. The report of business over the road is included in the general report of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
and in the lower section of Lynn township, Lehigh county, which adjoins the two townships named, are raised more than in any other township. From all these localities a good many are brought to Kempton, Berks county, for shipment. Hence not all the potatoes shipped from that station are raised in B…
Historical and biographical annals of Berks County, Pennsylvania, embracing a concise history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, comp. by Morton L. Montgomery ..1909 · page 561Read the page →
Read the text

and in the lower section of Lynn township, Lehigh county, which adjoins the two townships named, are raised more than in any other township. From all these localities a good many are brought to Kempton, Berks county, for shipment. Hence not all the potatoes shipped from that station are raised in Berks county. A good many were raised before the building of the Berks County railroad, which was first operated

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

Kempton, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Kempton, Pennsylvania2012Kempton, PennsylvaniaKempton, Pennsylvania2012Kempton, PennsylvaniaKempton, Pennsylvania2012Kempton, PennsylvaniaFlickr - Nicholas T - Pointing Southeast2010Flickr - Nicholas T - Pointing SoutheastChurch2010ChurchFlickr - Nicholas T - Lucent2008Flickr - Nicholas T - Lucent

Questions about Kempton’s history

What year was Kempton founded?

The Kempton post office opened in 1881, 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 →
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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), 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.