Mount Joy, Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
 Mount Joy post office | |
 Location in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania | |
  Mount Joy Location in Pennsylvania Show map of Pennsylvania Mount Joy Location in the United States Show map of the United States | |
| Coordinates:40°06′36″N76°30′40″W / 40.11000°N 76.51111°W /40.11000; -76.51111 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Lancaster |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Timothy D. Bradley Jr. (R) |
| Area | |
• Total | 2.42 sq mi (6.28 km2) |
| • Land | 2.41 sq mi (6.24 km2) |
| • Water | 0.015 sq mi (0.04 km2) |
| Elevation | 371 ft (113 m) |
| Population | |
• Total | 8,325 |
| • Density | 3,453.0/sq mi (1,333.22/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| ZIP code | 17552 |
| Area codes | 717 and 223 |
| Website | www |
Mount Joy is aborough inLancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,346 at the2020 census, and an estimated 8,323 in 2021.[3]
The name is often shortened to "Mt Joy", as in Mencken (1963).[4] However, citizens of the town often point out that this abbreviation is not proper because the town is not named for a mountain but is named after the "Good Ship"Mountjoy which famously broke a Catholic siege during theSiege of Derry.[5] Due to the early settlement of the ProtestantScots-Irish in this region of Pennsylvania, many of the municipalities in the area were given names common to the North of Ireland, such asDerry Township,Londonderry Township,South Londonderry Township,Mount Joy Township,East Donegal Township,West Donegal Township, andRapho Township.
Mount Joy is often named in lists of "delightfully-named towns" inPennsylvania Dutch Country, along withIntercourse,Blue Ball,Lititz,Bareville,Bird-in-Hand andParadise.[6][7][8][9][4]
Mount Joy is located in northwestern Lancaster County at40°6′36″N76°30′40″W / 40.11000°N 76.51111°W /40.11000; -76.51111 (40.109895, -76.510977).[10]Pennsylvania Route 230 passes through the center of town as Main Street, leading southeast 12 miles (19 km) toLancaster, thecounty seat, and northwest 6 miles (10 km) toElizabethtown.Harrisburg, the state capital, is 25 miles (40 km) to the northwest via PA-230.PA-772 crosses PA-230 west of the borough center and leads northeast 7 miles (11 km) toManheim and southwest 5 miles (8 km) toMarietta on theSusquehanna River.
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.3 km2), of which 0.02 square miles (0.04 km2), or 0.64%, are water.[11]Little Chiques Creek, a south-flowing tributary ofChiques Creek and part of the Susquehanna River watershed, crosses the eastern side of the borough.
In the 1970s, Mount Joy was chosen as the site of one of tenDecision Information Distribution System radio stations, designed to alert the public of an enemy attack. The system was never implemented and the station was not built.
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | 1,729 | — | |
| 1870 | 1,896 | 9.7% | |
| 1880 | 2,058 | 8.5% | |
| 1890 | 1,848 | −10.2% | |
| 1900 | 2,018 | 9.2% | |
| 1910 | 2,166 | 7.3% | |
| 1920 | 2,192 | 1.2% | |
| 1930 | 2,716 | 23.9% | |
| 1940 | 2,855 | 5.1% | |
| 1950 | 3,006 | 5.3% | |
| 1960 | 3,292 | 9.5% | |
| 1970 | 5,041 | 53.1% | |
| 1980 | 5,680 | 12.7% | |
| 1990 | 6,398 | 12.6% | |
| 2000 | 6,765 | 5.7% | |
| 2010 | 7,410 | 9.5% | |
| 2020 | 8,346 | 12.6% | |
| 2021 (est.) | 8,323 | [3] | −0.3% |
| Sources:[12][13][14][15][2] | |||
The2010 United States census reports the following demographics for Mount Joy Borough:[16]
In the years since then many of these names have been changed to more elegant ones,2 and others have vanished with the ghost towns they adorned, but not a few still hang on. Indeed, there are plenty of lovely specimens to match them in the East, in regions that were also frontier in their days,e.g., the famous cluster in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania: Bird in Hand, Bareville, Blue Ball, Mt. Joy, Intercourse and Paradise.
...in such delightfully-named towns in Pennsylvania Dutchland as his native Mount Joy, and neighboring Lititz, Blue Ball, Bareville, Intercourse, Bird in Hand, and Paradise.
"...but anyone who names their towns Mount Joy, Intercourse, and Blue Ball can't be all bad. Obviously they have more on their minds than just religion."
Which brings us to Intercourse. You can imagine my delight when I found out that the Amish call the town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, their home. There seems to be a lot of explanations from locals trying to pass off the name as a bastardisation of 'Enter Course' and so on, but seeing as there are other local towns called Blue Ball, Bird In Hand, and Mount Joy, I suspect that the person responsible had a very juvenile sense of humour. The town sits in upstate Pennsylvania and is a tourist trap for anyone even remotely curious about the Amish way of life.
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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