Colonial Tavern to Commuter Borough — 1697 to Present
The land that would become Jenkintown was settled around 1697 by Welsh Quaker pioneer William Jenkins, who emigrated from Wales as part of the broader Quaker migration to William Penn's colony. Jenkins acquired land in what was then the sprawling Abington Township, one of the oldest townships in Pennsylvania, and the community that grew around his family's presence gradually took his name.
The Jenkins family's most lasting early contribution was the tavern operated by Sarah Jenkins, which became a well-known stagecoach stop along the post road between Philadelphia and New York. Travelers moving goods and mail through the colonial Pennsylvania countryside would rest horses, take meals, and exchange news at the tavern. It placed Jenkintown on early regional maps — not as a town, but as a named waypoint — and established the settlement's identity as a through-route rather than an isolated settlement.
The area remained part of Abington Township for nearly two centuries after the Jenkins family settled it, growing slowly but continuously as a farming and trading community along a well-traveled corridor.
The arrival of the North Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857 was the pivotal infrastructure event in Jenkintown's history. Rail access to Philadelphia — a direct line of roughly 11 miles — converted what had been a rural crossroads into something entirely new: a commuter suburb. Merchants and professionals who wanted distance from the city's crowding and cholera seasons, but needed to reach it reliably each morning, found Jenkintown's combination of established community and rail access exactly what they were looking for.
Land values rose. New homes were built. The population began to grow faster than the surrounding township. By the 1870s, the community had developed enough distinct identity and infrastructure to support the administrative separation from Abington Township that would follow.
On December 8, 1874, approximately 248 acres were formally separated from Abington Township to create the independent Borough of Jenkintown. The borough established its own government, its own fire protection, and its own school district in the years that followed. The separation was a recognition of a community that had, through the railroad era, grown dense enough and distinct enough to govern itself.
The date is still observed locally. December 8, 2024, marked the borough's 150th anniversary.
Jenkintown's proximity to Philadelphia placed it in the middle of the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign. In early December 1777, elements of the British Army passed through the area on their march toward the Battle of White Marsh, one of the final engagements of that campaign. The battle, fought December 5–8, ended inconclusively: General Washington's Continental Army held its position at White Marsh, the British withdrew, and Washington's forces soon moved to Valley Forge for the winter. The roads through what is now Jenkintown were part of the contested corridor between the two armies during this period.
Jenkintown's population roughly doubled each decade from 1880 to 1920 as rail-accessible suburban living attracted Philadelphia professionals. The borough reached its historical peak around 1940, and has remained relatively stable at just under 5,000 since the postwar era.
From the mid-1950s through the early 1980s, the Old York Road corridor through Jenkintown was one of the primary retail destinations for the northern Philadelphia suburbs. Department stores, specialty retailers, restaurants, and professional services lined the main commercial strip, drawing shoppers from Abington, Cheltenham, and communities farther north.
The rise of regional shopping malls — particularly Willow Grove Park Mall in the 1970s — gradually shifted that retail traffic away from downtown Jenkintown. The pattern was common across inner-ring Philadelphia suburbs, and Jenkintown's downtown has since evolved toward a mix of restaurants, services, and local businesses rather than department store retail.
One of Jenkintown's more unusual institutional features is its pair of volunteer fire companies. Pioneer Fire Company No. 1 was organized in 1884; Independent Fire Company No. 2 followed in 1889. Both were founded within the borough's first 15 years of existence, and both are still active today.
Their separate founding reflects an early institutional split in the community that locals still reference. Despite distinct origins, the two companies have operated cooperatively for generations and together represent one of the longer-running volunteer fire operations in Montgomery County.