Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1843.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mont Alto’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mont Alto is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mont Alto’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 Mont Alto’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.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1762.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.4 points).
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 Mont Alto’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
John Funk built the first house in the borough (then unestablished) in 1817 on what is now Main Street. At this time the town was known as "Funkstown". Eventually the town of Altodale and the surrounding area, called Mont Alto, combined into what is now known as Mont Alto.
In 1915 the town of Mont Alto was incorporated with a population of 800.
In the beginning of the 20th century, Mont Alto contained one of the largest sanatoriums in the area for treatment of tuberculosis.
Passages that mention Mont Alto, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Franklin county, Pennsylvania1887 · page 214Read the page →
History of Franklin county, Pennsylvania1887 · page 654Read the page →
Read the text
branches for six years. In 1869 he was made chief engineer of the Southern Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1872 he went to Michigan, where he was engaged in the lumber business until 1877. He then returned to Chambersburg and engaged in making surveys of the Mont Alto Railroad extension to Waynesboro; was chief engineer of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad during 1878-79. He then went to Jefferson City, Mo., connected with the Missouri Central Railroad, and returned to Chambersburg in 1880. In 1881 he became permanently connected with the Cumberland Valley Railroad Company, as chief en-
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
Mont Alto, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. 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.
Between 589 and 1,705 people in every census since 1890.
12 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mont Alto’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Mont Alto’s history
What year was Mont Alto founded?
In 1762, according to Wikidata. Mont Alto’s post office opened in 1843, and the census of 1890 counted 658 people here.
How does Mont Alto rank for history?
Mont Alto is more historic than 70% 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 Mont Alto?
17% of Mont Alto’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
1909