Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1846.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mount Carmel’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Carmel is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #243 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mount Carmel’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 Mount Carmel’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 1770.
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 (±7.8 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 Mount Carmel’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mount Carmel. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1889Catawissa 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 Mount Carmel.
Every building
Mount Carmel, building by building, 1885–1920
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The area that would become Mount Carmel was successively part of Chester, Lancaster, and Berks counties before the formation of Northumberland County in 1772. Europeans first settled the area around 1770, and anthracite coal was discovered nearby in 1790 by Isaac Tomlinson on Broad Mountain. According to local historian Herbert Bell, the borough was named by sawmill operator Albert Bradford, who drew inspiration from the Biblical Mount Carmel in Israel, finding the elevated mountain setting comparable to the holy site.
Passages that mention Mount Carmel, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Locust Gap, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania1929Read the page →
Read the text
set some of it in place. This was the first house built in the present Horough of Shamokin and was located on Commerce, sometimes called Mount Carmel street, about midway between ‘Franklin and Pearl streets. Mr, Bird’s foresight in securing this mill can be readily ap.- preciated when it is recalled that about this time, Shamokin and Mount Carmel became realities and the demand for lumber was very great.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Locust Gap, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania1929Read the page →
Read the text
For almost fourteen years all services of the congregation were heid in the Locust ‘Spring school house. In 1914, the church had grown to suck numbers that they found their quarters too small, and in addition to this it became known that the Mount Carmel township school board, the owners of the building, contemplated the erection of a new school to house all the teachers and pupils and the abandonment of the two then in use. After the close of the regular services on Sunday, June 7, 1914, a meeting of the entire membership was held to consider
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.
Timeline
Mount Carmel, 1770 to 1930
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 1770, according to Wikidata. Mount Carmel’s post office opened in 1846, and the census of 1870 counted 1,289 people here.
How does Mount Carmel rank for history?
Mount Carmel is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns, #243 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. 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 Mount Carmel?
64% of Mount Carmel’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (12), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1851
1851
1917
c. 1930
c. 1930
c. 1930
c. 1930