Northumberland, Pennsylvania

The Joseph Priestley House a National Historic Landmark in Northumberland

Northumberland was founded in 1772.[4] The land that became Northumberland was purchased from the Iroquois in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the village was laid out in 1772. During the American Revolution, Northumberland was evacuated during the Big Runaway in 1778, and only finally resettled in 1784.[5]

Northumberland was the American home of eighteenth-century British theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, educator, and political theorist Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) from 1794 until his death in 1804. The Joseph Priestley House still stands on Priestley Avenue and is a National Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and a museum administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. There is one other property in the borough on the NRHP: the Priestley-Forsyth Memorial Library, built by a great grandson of Joseph Priestley. Much of the borough is part of the Northumberland Historic District, which is also on the NRHP.

View of Northumberland from the Shikellamy State Park overlook

Northumberland is located at 40°53′38″N 76°47′46″W (40.893935, -76.795975),[6] about 60 miles northeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It sits at the confluence of the north and west branches of the Susquehanna River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.6 square miles (4.1 km²), all of it land.

The Susquehanna River near Northumberland

As of the census[8] of 2000, there were 3,714 people, 1,657 households, and 1,045 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,368.2 people per square mile (913.4/km²). There were 1,772 housing units at an average density of 1,129.9 per square mile (435.8/km²). The racial makeup of the borough was 98.38% White, 0.73% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.19% Asian, 0.40% from other races, and 0.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.62% of the population.

There were 1,657 households, out of which 25.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.79.

In the borough the population was spread out, with 21.7% under the age of 18, 6.7% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 24.2% from 45 to 64, and 18.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.8 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $31,891, and the median income for a family was $38,807. Males had a median income of $31,162 versus $22,203 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $18,229. About 4.5% of families and 7.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.7% of those under age 18 and 6.8% of those age 65 or over.

Map of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Public School Districts

The local public school system is the Shikellamy School District, with administrative offices in nearby Sunbury. Shikellamy High School has a 78% graduation rate according to the district report card 2005-2006. In 11th grade in the same year, 49% were proficient in math and 62% were proficient in reading.[10] The high school is ranked 384th out of 606 public high schools in Pennsylvania.[11]

In 2007, the Pittsburgh Business Times ranked the Shikellamy School District 434th out of 499 Pennsylvania school districts based on three years of Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment test scores.[12]

The Shikellamy School Board set the budget at $34.62 million for 2007-2008. The board levies a variety of taxes to support its programs. Taxes include 62.5 mills real estate tax in 2007.[13] Per capita taxes are $5 per resident. An occupational tax, which charges a set amount based on your job title, earns approximately $1.7 million. Many see this tax as particularly unfair, as people classified in the same job title often earn vastly different amounts but have to pay the same amount. An earned income taxes of one-half of 1 percent of income yields a revenue of approximately $1.8 million. Additionally, the real estate transfer tax of one-half percent (Northumberland Borough, Point Township, Rockefeller Township) and one percent (Snydertown borough) is levied on real estate transfers.[14]

Voters rejected a tax referendum in May 2007 which would have increased local earned income tax by 0.5 percent to reduce property taxes for homeowners and farmers by $176 on average.[15]

SUN Area Technical Institute is a regional vocational school, offering adult education classes, vocational education, and technical career training. SUN Tech serves over 1500 people annually. ISO9001 and Middle States Accredited. SUN Tech was presented with the Significant Achievement Award in Education for raising their Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award score to 648 points, a 345-point increase from 303 points in August 2000.

Residents also have a wide selection of alternative schools. By law, the local public school must provide transportation to schools within 10 miles of the borders of the school district at no charge to the student.[16]

A seven-seat Council governs the Borough of Northumberland, with a mayor taking on a largely ceremonial role. Council members serve for four-year terms, as does the mayor. The current mayor, Len Zboray was appointed in July 2011 to complete the term of Past Mayor Gretchen Brosius upon her resignation.

Panoramic view of Northumberland (left) with the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River (left) and North Branch (center) of the Susquehanna River, along with the borough of Sunbury (far right). Taken from the Shikellamy State Park Overlook, with the state park's Marina unit on Packer Island in the river visible.

English chemist and codiscoverer of oxygen Joseph Priestley lived in Northumberland for the last decade of his life, until his death in 1804. The Joseph Priestley House remains standing, as a museum.

World War II Major General Uzal Girard Ent, who had led the August 1943, raid on the Romanian oil refineries in Ploiești, chose Colonel Paul Tibbets to lead the 509th Composite Group, asking him to organize and lead a combat force to deliver a new type of explosive device that is so powerful that its full potential was unknown. Tibbets did so, and was the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that delivered the first atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. The Enola Gay's navigator on the mission was Captain Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, also a native of Northumberland, who was among the men hand-selected by Tibbets to accomplish the mission.

Daniel McFarlan Moore was born in Northumberland and was an electrical engineer and inventor, who developed a novel light source, the "Moore lamp," and a business that produced them in the early 1900s. The Moore lamp was the first commercially viable light-source based on gas discharges instead of incandescence; it was the predecessor to contemporary neon lighting and fluorescent lighting. In his later career, Moore developed a miniature neon lamp, which was extensively used in electronic displays, and vacuum tubes, which were used in early television systems.

David Fulmer, the author of a series of novels about Storyville, New Orleans and the producer of the documentary film "Blind Willie's Blues," was born in Northumberland in 1950 and resided there until he was eighteen. Fulmer's mother and father were lifelong residents of the borough.

Helen Taggart Clark (pen name, H. T. C.; 1849–?), born in Northumberland, was a journalist and poet.