Austinville
Austinville (pop. 30) [1] is a small hamlet in Londonderry Township on the road (Route 41) from Chatham to Cochranville, a short distance west of Route 926. The name is derived from Virginia-born, Nebraska-bred Carp W. Austin who, at 39, settled there and built seven bungalows between 1936 and 1946 for his children and his younger brother, Dane Austin, who moved there from Baywood, Virginia, in 1946. In between times he did carpenter work for families in Chatham, West Grove, and surrounding villages. When other persons asked the families where they could locate the painter-carpenter they baptized the place Austinville. Even before the Austin families settled there, and still today, the place has been called Flat Iron Camp because of the small store and filling station across the highway from C. W. Austin's home. Ellens D. Willard, who was born at Kemblesville in 1881, established the business on Route 41 in the early thirties. When the Coca Cola Company wanted to put up a store sign for him, he didn't think his own name would sound right on it. He selected the name Flat Iron Camp because the land, from which he pulled more than 200 tree stumps, looked like an old time flat iron. The sign bearing the name is still hanging.
- Pinkowski, Edward. Chester County Place Names,, Sunshine Press, Philadelphia, 1962
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Gap Newport Pike • Route 41
