Evansburg Historic District

About this property

The Evansburg Historic District in Evansburg, Pennsylvania, United States, is a National Historic District designated by Congress with over 50 National Register properties dating from the early 18th through 19th century. Almost all of these properties are privately owned and in active use at this time. The Evansburg Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Evansburg is one of America's earliest planned villages, being the conception of William Lane, whose will of 1732 left to the ministers that shall serve successively at St. James' Church, "Forty two acres of land adjoining, which said land shall be laid out as commodious for a settlement as conveniently it may be without causing much damage to the remainder." Evansburg is part of William Penn's Holy Experiment, where people lived in separate clusters according to their religious, cultural, and national heritage, but were linked together politically and economically in a common destiny that was to become the United States of America. Thus there were the German Lutherans in Trappe, the Welsh Baptists in Eagleville, the Scottish Presbyterians in Norriton, the English Quakers in Plymouth Meeting, the Dutch Mennonite along the Skippack, and the English Anglicans in Evansburg. The village was at one time known as Hustletown for the "hustling" or "raffling" witnessed by two youngbloods who gave a cheer for Hustletown, according to legend. The nickname probably came from the fact that Hussel Town, an individual, owned land next to Edward Lane in 1773. Originally, the land was purchased on June 3, 1684, from Sachem Maughaugam, chief of the Lenape Native Americans. It was called "Pahkehoma" and later Anglicized to "Perkiomen", meaning "the place where grow the cranberries". "Skippack", the name of the other creek, means "a stagnant stream". The Evans family, for whom the village is named, have written in history a record of remarkable achievement and fame. Evan Evans, the second minister at Christ Church, Philadelphia, received his Doctor of Divinity from Brasenose College, Oxford, and was sent by the Bishop of London to be the first Church of England minister in these parts. Owen Evans owned jointly with his cousin Oliver Evans the first steam-mill built in America at Pittsburgh, and later his factory in Evansburg produced large numbers of muskets for the War of 1812. John Evans was instrumental in founding Northwestern University, and the Chicago suburb in which it is located was named Evanston in his honor. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Census Designated Place has a total area of 1.5 square miles (3.9 km2), all of it land. The nearby Evansburg State Park takes its name from the CDP.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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