Jacksonville CDP (Indiana County), PA

Jacksonville, also known locally as Kent, is a census-designated place in Indiana County spread across Young, Armstrong, and Black Lick townships. Its older name is not just a nickname: the settlement was laid out in 1830 by William and Joseph McFarland, and the historic account calls it Jacksonville Borough, Kent post office. James Alcorn built the first house and kept the first tavern; early community life also included a United Presbyterian church, later Presbyterian and Methodist congregations, a store, and sawmill and gristmill activity. Those details put Jacksonville in the old rural-village tradition rather than the modern suburban one.

Jacksonville became a borough in 1852, then lost that status in 1993 when the borough was returned to township government. That change is the local key: the place still carries a village name and a long civic history, but today it is a rural CDP woven into several township maps. The Kent post-office name and the Jacksonville name can both turn up, so keeping both in view saves a lot of map confusion. The surrounding Indiana County country is the real setting—roads, farms, churches, and the old settlements that grew around them.