Scenes from Upper Allen TownshipThis year, Upper Allen Township celebrates a big birthday—its 175th—and is using the occasion both for reflection and assessment.
The goal is looking at “where the township was, where we are now, and where we hope to be,” said Timothy Wendling, the township’s assistant manager.
All this year, the township is holding events to mark the occasion, among them a historical speaking series educating residents on how and why Upper Allen came into being, a community art project, a vintage baseball tournament, and—the culmination—a drone light show.
Then to Now
The township’s story starts much earlier than 1850, with Sir Admiral William Penn, father of Pennsylvania founder William Penn.
According to Upper Allen resident and historian William Murray, the elder Penn gave lots of money to the king of England so he could maintain his Navy. Penn died before the king could repay, so he settled the debt by granting the son plots of land to sell in what is now southeast Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Besides giving Quakers religious freedom in the new world, Penn wanted to make more money, leading him to expand westward. This led to creation of Lancaster County, from which was later formed Cumberland County.
Over the years, political entities within Cumberland County were made smaller, each time to bring residents closer to their seat of government.
In 1849, residents filed a court petition to divide Allen Township—again so citizens would not have to travel far to do business with their government, for example every time land changed hands. The courts agreed, leading to creation of Upper Allen Township in 1850.
According to Murray, the original Allen Township was named for William Allen, a prominent member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and former mayor of Philadelphia—who never set foot in Cumberland County.
From the start, roads linked Upper Allen to other communities for trade and travel. For the most part, life in Upper Allen in the late 1800s revolved around agriculture, as was the case for the region in general.
Upper Allen in 1850 was home to 1,220 people, according to census research Murray has done. Children attended one of nine one-room schoolhouses in the Mechanicsburg area.
Most of the township was farmland—7,614 improved acres. Today, Upper Allen has 741 acres of farmland, Murray said.
For the first 100 years, the township grew very little. By 1950, Upper Allen was home to just under 1,600 people, only about 400 more than a century before.
But from 1950 to 1960, the population shot up to over 8,000. The nation was experiencing a baby boom as men returned home from World War II. Buying an automobile was within reach of the average person.
These factors combined to begin transforming Upper Allen from mostly farmland to residential—the advent of suburbia—supporting the economic growth of Harrisburg and the surrounding region.
Since then, the continued growth of Upper Allen has been dramatic, consistent with other once-rural townships in south central Pennsylvania like Silver Spring and Lower Paxton.
By 2000, Upper Allen was up to 15,338 people, and by 2010, 18,059, according to census figures. Upper Allen grew another 28.4% from 2010 to 2020, reaching 23,261, according to the 2020 census.
Wendling said that the township’s rapid growth continues, citing demand for new housing and the new businesses, restaurants and convenience stores sprouting up to keep pace with the burgeoning population.
Fit the Bill
Upper Allen has several things going for it to attract people, Wendling said.
The proximity of Route 15 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike make for easy day trips not just to Harrisburg but to Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York City and Washington, D.C. Other big selling points are the Mechanicsburg Area School District, and the township’s emphasis on open space and parks.
“While we are continuing to grow with housing and developments and businesses, I think Upper Allen is striking that really good balance between growth and kind of maintaining that rural-ish type of feeling here,” Wendling said.
If that is the present, Steven Leasure and his family are invested in and part of the township’s future.
When Leasure’s company transferred him from Michigan to south central Pennsylvania, a good school district and parks with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation topped his family’s must-have list for a new home.
Upper Allen Township fit the bill.
“We went back and forth between Derry Township and a couple of other places,” said Leasure, who moved with his wife and two boys—Jude, 10, and Gabe, 7—in January 2023.
“What really made Upper Allen stick out was just the amount of parks in the small area and the equipment they have and just the things you can do,” he said. “The proximity to Mechanicsburg being a nice small little town that you can walk around through. You have Harrisburg International Airport close, the city of Harrisburg. It was just like a good distance from everything we needed.”
So far, life in Upper Allen Township has been everything Leasure and his family hoped for. He’s optimistic that the good vibe will continue.
“Just like any other township, it is going to continue to grow,” he said. “But I would hope that, as we grow as a township, it’s like strategic growth—we’re not just saying you know let’s put more houses for more tax revenue—that we are actually growing the community in the right way and continuing to have open spaces for our kids to play in.”
Upper Allen Township is holding events all year long to celebrate its 175th anniversary. For details, visitwww.uatwp.org/information/175th_anniversary.php.
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