Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: maps from 1889 on and old-book passages.
The Locust Gap post office opened in 1870, 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Locust Gap’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Locust Gap. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Locust Gap.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Locust Gap yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Locust Gap is an unincorporated community in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located approximately two miles southwest of Mount Carmel.
Its first post office opened in 1870.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Locust 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.
to the points where it was destined. The opening of the railroads in this section somewhat facilitated the movement. Although the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Haven railroad was extended through Locust Gan to Locust Gap Junction, as we know it but which at that wags known as Locust Gap, in 1860, it seems that it did not cause the revolution in the coal industry in the town that had been expected and it was not until] nineteen years later that any collieries worthy of the name was opened. In 1855, the Locust Summit Improvement Company opened
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Locust Gap post office opened in 1870, 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 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.
