📅 Monster List of Pottstown Events

🚧 Route 663 Resurfacing Planned in Upper Hanover Oct. 26 to 29

🔨 Chester County Whole Home Repairs Program Wraps Up Dec. 31

🎃 Thousands Turn Out for Boyertown’s 73rd Halloween Parade

🛒 Wegmans Check Out Hunger Returns at Collegeville and King of Prussia

🚒 Pottstown History: The Phillies, Pottstown’s First Fire Company

Upcoming Pottstown Local Events

October 25th:

👇 Keep in the Know about Pottstown Area Events👇

PennDOT plans paving and utility work on Route 663 (Quakertown Avenue and John Fries Highway) between Otts Road and the Bucks County line in Upper Hanover Township from Oct. 26 to 29, weather permitting.

Crews will work daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and again from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. the following morning, with a lane closure and flaggers directing traffic.

PennDOT says backups and delays will occur, so plan on a little extra travel time if you’re headed that way. The work is part of a resurfacing push on four state highways across Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties.

Read more: The Post: Route 663 Resurfacing Planned Next Week

Chester County’s Whole Home Repairs Program will end on Dec. 31 after repairing nearly 200 homes since 2023 with $2.9 million in federal ARPA funds.

Working through four nonprofits (Good Works Inc., Habitat for Humanity of Chester County, Good Neighbors Home Repair and Housing Partnership of Chester County), the countywide program helped low- and moderate-income homeowners with heating, broken windows, plumbing, leaking roofs and accessibility needs.

Dolores Colligan, director of the county’s Department of Community Development, said more residents applied than the program was able to help. More repair funding is awaiting federal approval under the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, though that does not change the Dec. 31 end date, and after the program closes, residents may seek help directly from the four nonprofits.

Boyertown’s 73rd Halloween Parade on Oct. 17 featured 86 entries and about 3,000 participants, and committee chair Adriane Zapien estimates the usual spectator turnout at around 25,000.

Mayor Lori Carnes served as Grand Marshal, a new Judges’ Choice Award arrived with golden confetti, and award winners included Tanner’s Twirlers and Sacks & Sons’ Toy Story float.

The tradition dates to 1912 and is organized by the nonprofit Boyertown Halloween Parade Association, and Zapien said the group is happy it was a smooth and safe parade.

Read more: Reading Eagle: Thousands Pack Boyertown for 73rd Halloween Parade

Check Out Hunger campaign runs from Oct. 21 through Saturday, Nov. 28 at the Collegeville and King of Prussia Wegmans stores.

Shoppers can add $2, $3, $5 or any amount at checkout, with proceeds going to the food banks closest to each store.

Pottstown’s own Cluster Outreach Center benefited last year, along with Philabundance and the Chester County Food Bank.

Read more: The Post: Collegeville, King of Prussia Wegmans Check Out Hunger

After a run of bad fires in 1870, Pottstown Borough Council sent representatives to Philadelphia to buy a hand-drawn pumper from Philadelphia Fire Company No. 18, and on Jan. 3, 1871, local men formed the Philadelphia Fire Company of Pottstown.

That June the company added a horse-drawn Silsby steam engine, and at its Aug. 21, 1871 incorporation it became the Philadelphia Steam Fire Engine Company No. 1, better known as the “Phillies.”

After starting out on the south side of the 100 block of King Street, members voted in 1876 to buy the lot at 240 Chestnut St. and built the firehouse themselves beginning in 1878, with T.L. Yergey handling the masonry and brick work and Frank Fegley supervising and furnishing materials, at a cost of about $13,000.

The firehouse was dedicated on June 12, 1880 and has seen only two renovations, new doors in the 1930s and social quarters in the 1940s, and its story lives on in a 2002 Pottstown 250th Anniversary Committee marker with text by the late William Krause.

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