Royersford Borough is a quintessential old fashioned PA town, typical of what you find all over the…read morestate, wherever towns have been largely left in their 19th C. image. This is a great stop for a Philadelphia tourist making a brief day excursion to see what our towns looked like well over a century ago. Normally, you need to travel to Lancaster County, or farther, to find a town as preserved in the 19th C. as this one.
We've enjoyed visiting Royersford for over a decade due to one of our favorite restaurants, French Quarter Bistro. We'd never have met this town if not for FQB. Over the years, we've watched the town come back to life quite a bit, with the revival of old buildings, new street lamps, re-construction of sidewalks, re-paving of roads, addition of landscaping and flowers to public spaces, and old fashioned street lamps, added throughout the borough proper.
If you like 19th C. architecture, particularly Victorian homes, and more rustic PA millworks buildings, you will get an eyeful here. Their old train station has been kept the way it was in President Grant's day. However, the town seemed to reach an industrial heyday in the early 20th C., when it had two glass works, two bottle works, mills for silk, a dye and bleaching plant, and various factories. Royersford was home to factories for stoves, bricks, gas meters, stockings, shirts, shafting parts, wagons, agricultural implements, etc. (Thank you Wiki.)
After the train station, heading away from the center of town on Main, you cross a bridge and you are quickly into Spring City. The towns are so close they are like twin towns. Often Royersford and Spring City's histories are entwined due to their very close proximity.
Recently, we saw Royersford's banners honoring local veteran heroes, which are displayed on patriotic holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day, Veteran's Day). This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen a municipality come together to create and display. Each banner was for a different hometown hero, from various wars, and the old photos of the veterans were so neat to look at. What an incredible touch.
Royersford is becoming more of a hot new neighborhood for young professionals and young families. It is located on 422, which provides high-speed access to the Main Line, or to 76 into the city, where many work. We are excited to see it boom more as time progresses. It is a neat old town.
