The Township of Lower Merion is bounded by the Schuylkill River, the borough of West Conshohocken, Upper Merion Township, Delaware County, and the city of Philadelphia. The original size was reduced to the present 23.34 square miles when West Conshohocken became a borough in 1874 and Narberth in 1895.
First settlers of what was known as the Welsh Tract arrived in August 1682 aboard the ship Lyon, two months before William Penn. While still in England Penn had sold forty thousand acres to the Welsh Quakers for about ten cents an acre. They named their first settlement Merion, as many had come from Merionshire. The Merion Friends Meetinghouse they constructed in 1695 is the oldest place of worship in continuous use in Pennsylvania. The Meetinghouse and other early buildings, the Owen Roberts house in Wynnewood built in 1695 and the "1690 House" on Mill Creek Road, still stand, as do the house later named Harriton and the General Wayne Inn, both built in 1701.
Following the Welsh settlers came others of English, German, Irish, and Italian origin. The first German-Lutheran church-school, erected in 1787, still stands. The site of the Lower Merion Baptist Church was donated to the congregation by Charles Thomson, secretary to the Continental Congress, in 1801. Lower Merion now has around 50 religious institutions of various faiths actively saving the community.
Soil in most of the township consists of a dark surface layer about eight inches deep with a yellowish brown subsoil ranging from two to eight feet in depth above bedrock. Soils are mainly acid with variable permeability. Most early farms contained one or more springs, many of which are now piped underground. Mill Creek is the largest stream and lies wholly within the township. In its six miles from the source in Villanova to its mouth at the Schuylkill it drops 250 feet and once powered sixteen mills and factories.
A county inventory lists seventy-eight historic and cultural sites in the township. Many others are unlisted. Interest is maintained by the active historical society, founded in 1949.
Lancaster Pike, completed in 1796 from Philadelphia to Lancaster and the first road to be macadamized, passed through Lower Merion for 4 1/2 miles. In 1917 the township had fourteen miles of roadway to be maintained. In 1990 it maintained hundreds of miles of highways.
Although Lower Merion was an independent township in 1713, it did not become a separate voting district until March 31, 1806.
In the early 1880s the township had 1,508 taxpayers, 863 horses, 1,536 cattle; real state was valued at $4,566,499. There were several businesses, fourteen schools, and ten churches. Soon after came new hotels, boarding houses, railroad stations, industries, and the construction of magnificent estates.
Today, Lower Merion Township is home to some of the most desirable places to live in the country. Let us help you find it!