Historic Note [1]
Huntingdon Valley is situated on the Middle road, near the Pennypack Creek, and but a short distance, from the Abington line. It contains two hotels, two stores, a hall, merchant mill, church, post-office, coal and lumber-yard, railroad-station and about forty houses. Eagle Hall, belonging to the I. O. O. F., was originally built in 1850, is a large two-story stone building, recently improved. The Presbyterian Church is a one-story stone building, surmounted with a steeple, erected in 1861. The pastors who have served the church from its organization are as follows: Revs. George J. Mingins, James B. Kennedy, Thomas Gray, T. C. Anderson, J. J. Cowles and the Rev. W. S. Barnes, the present pastor. The church has a membership of eighty-four. Adjoining the latter is a hall for concerts and lectures, containing a reading-room and library. The public school-house is two stories high, built in 1857. A factory has recently been erected here by a company for the manufacture of metallic caps for blasting purposes, employing about a dozen hands and capable of turning out forty thousand caps daily. Near the lower part of the village the Jenkintown Branch of the New York Railroad and the Newtown Railroad intersect each other, tending to add considerable to its prosperity. In 1852 the place contained only twelve or fourteen houses. In 1711 the Welsh road is mentioned as crossing at a ford here over the Pennypack, showing that there was then some travel and a settlement made. John Boutcher, of Moreland, by his will, dated June 25, 1707, bequeathed to his son Samuel three hundred and fifty acres of land, with all its improvements, and mentioned it as being "at Huntingdon." A part of this tract came in possession of Thomas Austin, whom we know had a grist-mill erected thereon before 1747, a public road to which is mentioned. This is the mill property now belonging to John Walton, from whose deeds we have received these facts. When application was made before for a post-office, which was previous to 1850, to retain the name of Huntingdon, Valley was added on account of the former Dame existing elsewhere in the State. About the beginning of this century the name of Goosetown was given it, derived, it is said, from the great numbers of geese raised in this vicinity along the Pennypack. On the completion of the railroad to New York, in 1876, the station here was called Bethayres, a contraction of Elizabeth Ayres, who was born here and mother of one of the directors of this improvement. Near where the Welsh road crosses the Pennypack are still to be seen the ruins of the old stone school-house, built about 1790, where the ancestors of numbers in the vicinity formerly received their education. The turnpike through here to the Fox Chase was finished in 1848, crossing the Pennypack by a substantial stone bridge, built by the county in 1811. Although the merchant mill of Mr. Walton here is situated nine miles from the source of the creek, which receives in this distance numerous, tributaries, the diminution of where in dry seasons became so great that in the summer of 1881 he had placed within it a steam-engine to afford additional power. Along the stream in this vicinity the ground lies low, and in time of freshets is subject to overflows. The surrounding country, however, is quite rolling and attains to some elevation. The Pennypack here affords boating and fishing, and a short distance below the Turnpike Bridge the scenery assumes a more romantic character. The census of 1880 exhibits one hundred and fifty-four inhabitants.
Nearby Neighborhoods
Street Names
Anne Street • Barrett Avenue • Duell Street • Huntingdon Pike • Murray Avenue • Philmont Avenue • Randolph Street • Red Lion Road