North of Cornwall Center, two neighborhoods—one old, one modern—sit side-by-side on the edge of rolling Lebanon farmlands.

These two towns, North Cornwall and Karinchville, share space and residents. To the uninitiated, the distinction between them is fuzzy. Further complicating things is the fact that both lie near the township designated North Cornwall, while actually existing within Cornwall Borough.

So what exactly constitutes North Cornwall and Karinchville as neighborhoods?

Old North Cornwall

North Cornwall, the neighborhood, is the older of the two. Much like the sturdily-built stone homes in the Burd-Coleman and Miner’s Village towns, North Cornwall was constructed to house workers for the extensive iron operations of Cornwall’s industrial heyday; specifically, workers at the nearby blast furnace. The furnace and much of the surrounding land was owned by William C. Freeman, Cornwall millionaire.

The buildings along Stone Row (between Race Street and Maple Lane) are limestone constructions of the early 1870’s, and as with other homes in the area, they were meant to accommodate two workers’ families per house.

Stone Row in North Cornwall, a street of houses similar in construction to those in Burd-Coleman and Miner’s Village.

To manage the blast furnace, a number of managerial and operations buildings were constructed, many of which are now private residences. Of these, the most imposing is the furnace manager’s mansion, initially the home of Henry C. Grittinger (who would later be the founding president of the Lebanon County Historical Society). As with Stone Row, this home is another limestone creation. Near these buildings stand the furnace office and springhouse, both of which are now used for more than their original purposes (management and water cleaning).

The area also includes the Fairview Grammar School and the Gristmiller’s Home, the former built in 1880 and the latter in 1809. The Gristmiller’s Home is a private residence, and one of the oldest structures in the immediate area (sadly, the accompanying mill caught fire in the late 1800s).

An early photograph of the 1878 mansion of furnace manager Henry Grittinger. Just down the street is the furnace office, a red-brick building that served as Grittinger’s workplace. This building is well-preserved and still serves as a private residence. (Cornwall Iron Furnace)
A photograph of the office, seemingly taken prior to the construction of the furnace manager’s mansion on the right. The office was constructed in the early 1870s, while the mansion was built in 1878. (Cornwall Iron Furnace)

Karinchville

Karinchville, in contrast to its considerably older neighbor to the southwest, was developed in the late 1940’s and 1950’s by future Cornwall mayor Matthew Karinch. Karinch, also known by the nickname “Tip,” was the driving force behind the construction of the eponymous neighborhood that bears his name.

North Cornwall in an aerial 1940 photograph. Note Stone Row northwest of the cul-de-sac at the bottom of the image. (PennPilot)
North Cornwall (and Karinchville) in a 1956 photograph, roughly 7 years after development of the suburb began. Karinchville occupies several streets southwest of the Bluebird Inn along Cornwall Road. (PennPilot)

The development took off in part due to the post-war baby boom – the older Cornwall towns were not explicitly built for a significant population increase, and so Karinchville served as a convenient new ‘burb for budding families looking to live in the area. Not all of the residents came following the war, however. Some of the first families moved into what would become Karinchville in the early 1940’s, and prior to that, several engineers from the furnace lived in the area.

Interestingly, Karinch’s passion for the sport of baseball seems to have fueled the development. In an early 1980’s interview with Karinch by historian Carl Oblinger, Karinch claims to have “started [Karinchville] so that my players would have some housing.” In the 1930’s, Karinch was attached to the local Cornwall Athletic Association, which at one point even had uniforms (supplied by Karinch) bearing the name of the Blue Bird Inn.

Note the baseball diamond just north of the Inn in the above 1956 photograph. The Association moved its games to the field from the village of Anthracite.

A photograph of the North Cornwall Furnace at the turn of the 20th century. Note the office building at the right edge of the photograph, obscured by a tree. The extent of the furnace’s facility is striking, as there is virtually no remaining evidence of the plant there today (which is now a part of Karinchville). (Cornwall Iron Furnace)
The same street today, office on right (still obscured by a tree).

The Blue Bird Inn, which predates the stone homes of North Cornwall by a decade or so (having been built in 1859), contains enough history for an article of its own. As an actual inn, it was first named Ye Olde Golden Key Hotel, which was the first of several names for the establishment. It was a convenient stopping point alongside the Cornwall Pike (now Cornwall Road). The Pike was a wooden-plank toll road traveled by farmers and workers.

Karinch bought what had recently been known as a ‘tea room’ in the 1930’s, ‘tea’ being a rather brazen codeword for outlawed alcohol. He owned the establishment until 1996, two years before his death at the age of 88.

Even now, the two villages are closely intertwined. Karinchville was built partially on slag from the blast furnace, and as the town added houses and streets, the old homes of North Cornwall were joined by new ones, along with new faces and families.

[Clarification: an earlier version of this article stated that both towns were within the North Cornwall Township. Both are actually within Cornwall Borough.]

Much thanks to the Cornwall Iron Furnace and the Lebanon County Historical Society for help in the detailing of this article.

LebTowns previously profiled:

Josh Groh is a Cornwall native and writer who began reporting for LebTown in 2019. He continued to regularly contribute to LebTown while earning a degree in environmental science at Lebanon Valley College, graduating in 2021. Since then, he has lead conservation crews in Colorado and taken on additional...

Comments

LebTown membership required to comment.

Already a member? Login here

Join the Conversation

3

Kindly keep your comments brief and respectful. We will remove comments that do not abide by these simple rules.
  1. Thanks for the history of the area. Having moved away, it’s nice to see the old haunts once in a while.

  2. You’re right, Dale – I apologize for the mistake. In future posts we will include a map detailing exactly where the towns in question are.

  3. Joshua,

    North Cornwall and Karinchville are in Cornwall Borough not North Cornwall Township.