Hallstead, PA

Hallstead is a Susquehanna County borough on the Susquehanna River, near Great Bend and the New York border. The area was settled in 1787; the borough was incorporated as Great Bend Village in 1874 and renamed Hallstead in 1887 for the president of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. The 2020 census counted 1,179 residents. Interstate 81 and the river cut through the paired communities of Hallstead and Great Bend, making bridges and road connections part of ordinary life.

The borough's institutions are tied to that shared valley. Blue Ridge School District serves Hallstead, with its elementary, middle, and high schools about nine miles south. The Community Memorial Bridge carries State Route 11 across the Susquehanna between Hallstead and Great Bend Township. Hallstead, Great Bend Borough, and Great Bend Township also share the Hallstead-Great Bend Joint Sewer Authority, formed in 1975 and operating a treatment system since 1986. A borough building, road crew, sewer authority, and school district give this river borough a practical civic network.