AREA HISTORY:  Hanover, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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GROWTH OF TOWN – Page 578

Hanover prospered for the first few years of its existence, although the houses 
were mostly built of logs.  It was quite a village when the Revolutionary war 
began, but the war hindered its further growth.  From 1790 to 1808 houses were 
erected more rapidly.  The New and Universal Gazetteer, in 1800, says that 
Hanover “is the second town in York County for size and wealth.  It contains 
about 160 houses, mostly brick, a German Calvinist (Reformed) and a German 
Lutheran Church.  It consists of five principal streets, two smaller ones and 
alleys.  In the centre of the town is a spacious square.”  A steady increase in 
buildings and population continued until about the war of 1812-14, after which 
the town remained nearly stationary until 1840.  Then there was a slight yearly 
improvement until 1852, when the building of the railroad to Hanover Junction 
caused a sudden impetus, and the town doubled its population in the next twenty 
years.  Besides the many new and handsome buildings erected during this period, 
may of the ancient log edifices were replaced by brick or frame ones of modern 
architecture.