Selinsgrove was founded in 1787 by Governor Simon Snyder's brother-in-law, Major Anthony Selin, a Swiss mercenary who fought at the side of General Washington in the Revolution. He purchased the long peninsula inaccurately called the Isle of Que from the estate of the late John Snyder and combined it with land west of Penns Creek to form “Selin's Grove,” which he named for the towering pines growing there. Laid out as a grid on the west side of Penns Creek, Selin's Grove expanded southwest in the 1860s to accommodate the campus of the Missionary Institute, now Susquehanna University ( SN5). The ferry, canal, and railroad combined to make Selin's Grove a flourishing transportation hub and marketplace in the nineteenth century. The county's first financial institution, the First National Bank of Selinsgrove, was established here in 1864. The largest borough in the county, Selinsgrove's economy is sustained by Susquehanna University. Despite fires in 1872 and 1874 and floods in 1889 and 1936, much of the nineteenth-century streetscape is preserved in this picturesque small town. The U.S. Post Office at 100 S. Main Street contains George Rickey's mural Susquehanna Trail (1939), an impressive example of American regionalism of the Depression era.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.