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Quick answers
How Oreland began
When was Oreland founded?
1893
The Oreland post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name.
2020 census: 6,210133 years
Founding year: the first Oreland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Oreland’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Oreland, as part of Springfield Township, was settled as one of William Penn's manors.
In 1686, Thomas Fitzwater discovered vast lime deposits on his land in Oreland. He erected a kiln to process it, which by 1693 had attracted the attention of William Penn. Penn ordered a highway built from the port of the Delaware River to the kiln. Named Limekiln Pike, and still in existence today, it was one of the first roads in the area. These lime deposits and the ore deposits also found in the area gave Oreland its name. Mining and farming would dominate Oreland's economy until the 20th century, when Oreland transformed into a residential suburb of Philadelphia, as it remains today.
Passages that mention Oreland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania1884 · page 1072Read the page →
Read the text
North Pennsylvania road crosses its entire width, a distance of nearly two miles, in a northwest direction, close to the Upper Dublin line. The stations on it are Edge Hill, Oreland and Sandy Run. The Plymouth Railroad extends from Conshohocken to Oreland, where it forms a junction with the North Pennsylvania road, a distance of two miles, with stations at Flourtown and Orelaud. It was extended
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
a distance of thirty-eight miles in length. This road has stations at Collegeville, Schwenksville, Green Lane, Pennsburg, and East Greenville. The Plymouth railroad extends from the borough of Conshohocken to Oreland, connecting with the North Pennsylvania line. It is only nine and a quarter miles in length. The Pennsylvania Schu3^1kill Valley railroad is an important railroad.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania1884 · page 714Read the page →
Read the text
•Schuylkill was built in 1833. In August, 1835, the railroad was finished through here to Norristown- The railroad to Plymouth was completed in 1836, and extended in 1870 to Oreland, where a junction is formed with the North Pennsylvania Railroad. A turnpike was made in 1849 to Plymouth Meeting^ which was extended in 1855 to the Three Tons where it strikes the Limekiln pike. The Schuylkill Valley
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.
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 (4), Wikipedia 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.
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