New Wilmington was laid out c. 1824 by James Waugh and his sons. It has the timeless quality of a nineteenth-century crossroads town, with its treeshaded, grid-patterned streets and lack of manufacturing plants. The flat and fertile land has attracted approximately 2,000 Old Order Amish to establish farms surrounding the village. A small but thriving commercial area along PA 208, or Neshannock Avenue, has parking lots for buggies behind some of the stores. In the 1840s, New Wilmington's position, halfway between the canals on the west and the northern turnpike (now U.S. 19) on the east, meant a steady stream of traffic through the town. The establishment of Westminster College in 1852 solidified its future. The serene, gable-roofed house at 448 Market Street (c. 1840), surrounded on all sides by college buildings, has paired windows in the gable end, returning eaves, and a slightly recessed central entrance flanked by sidelights. It epitomizes the Greek Revival style prevalent here during the canal era. Housing stock today ranges from mid-nineteenth-century brick and frame houses to new suburban dwellings.
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