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History · West Hamburg
West Hamburg’s post office opened in 1925
Most of West Hamburg was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: maps from 1968 on and old-book passages.
Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers
How West Hamburg began
When was West Hamburg founded?
1925
The West Hamburg post office opened in 1925, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 2010.
2020 census: 1,926101 years
Founding year: the first West Hamburg post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 2010.
What stands out about West Hamburg’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of West Hamburg yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
West Hamburg is a census-designated place in Tilden Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located along Old US Route 22 and just west of Pennsylvania Route 61 near the borough of Hamburg. The area is best known for having the biggest Cabela's store in the world. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,979 residents.
Its first post office opened in 1925. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,979 to 1,926 (-3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about West Hamburg in 1886
Passages that mention West Hamburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Berks county in Pennsylvania1886 · page 884Read the page →
Read the text
West Hamburg. — The station on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, at Hamburg, is on the west side of the river, about half a mile from the borough. The depot building was first sixty rods north of the present site, and Henry S. Kern became the agent, holding the position eighteen years In 1867 the present location was selected, on the farm of N. S. Schock. S. K. Kramp is
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
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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 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.
