Brickerville, PA

Brickerville is an unincorporated census-designated place and the largest village in Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, on U.S. 322. The highway runs through the center of town, leading about 35 miles west-northwest to Harrisburg and seven miles southeast to Ephrata. The settlement lies in the Conestoga River watershed, though its older story is industrial. Elizabeth Township records Brickerville's first blast furnace in 1741, using ore from the Cornwall mines. Stiegel glass manufacturing followed in 1757 and grew into an international export business; iron production peaked around 1780 and continued until 1856. Charcoal from area forests fed those furnaces.

That working past is still legible in the crossroads and nearby historic properties. The Brickerville House began as a hotel and community meeting place before becoming a general store, gas station, barber shop, and polling place in the twentieth century. Bricker Village occupies the historic property today. Elizabeth Furnace is about a mile north on Route 501, while Hopewell Forge lies west along Route 322. Elizabeth Township remains organized around agricultural, recreational, and residential land uses, with Brickerville serving as its largest village and its most recognizable meeting point.