Atglen, PA

Atglen is a borough in Chester County where the Octoraro and Valley Creek corridors meet the old roads of western West Sadsbury Township. The 2020 census counted 1,311 residents. European settlers arrived in the 1720s, drawn by open land and water power for mills. The Irwin brothers helped establish a permanent community with a tavern, grain mill, and sawmill, and the Octoraro became part of the county line when Lancaster County separated from Chester County in 1729. The borough was incorporated in 1876, after the community had shifted north toward the railroad.

Rail lines then set the pace. The Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad brought a development wave in the 1830s, followed by churches, stores, warehouses, and agricultural trade along the tracks. Atglen later became the eastern end of the Atglen and Susquehanna Low Grade Line, whose long embankment runs west toward the Susquehanna River and is now the subject of a planned regional trail connection. Route 41's 1954 bypass moved through-traffic away from Main Street, leaving a borough whose map still shows the older relationship between rail, farms, and the Octoraro country.