The history of Pottstown is intertwined with the history of iron and steel production. Iron ore, water, and charcoal were three resources found in abundance in the Pottstown area. All were required to make iron.

In 1717, Thomas Rutter built Pennsylvania’s first iron forge at Colebrookdale, along the Manatawny Creek, three miles upstream from present day Pottstown. In 1726, Thomas Potts moved from Germantown to join Rutter’s business. By 1742 Thomas’s son, John Potts, had taken over and expanded the industry by building two new forges along Manatawny Creek. In 1752, Potts purchased 995 acres from a Philadelphia merchant at the confluence of the Manatawny Creek and Schuylkill River for a new plantation. To the west of the creek he built his home, Pottsgrove Manor, and to the east of the creek he built a new forge adjacent to the 1725 grist mill known as the Roller Mills.

In 1761, Potts laid out a town around the forge. The town’s main thoroughfare, High Street, was part of the great road between Reading and Philadelphia.

New methods of producing iron with coal made charcoal blast furnaces less competitive, and Pottstown’s iron industry atrophied during the early decades of the 1800s. The lull was only temporary. Pottstown’s industrial potential and growth blossomed in the last half of the 19th century when the first steam locomotive linked Pottstown to Reading and Philadelphia in 1839, and to Pottsville’s rich coal mines by 1842. It was then possible to import coal economically and to ship out finished iron products to new markets. The railroads also meant increased business for bridges to carry the tracks across streams and roads. In the 1840s, the Philadelphia/Reading Railroad constructed extensive machine shops for the repair of locomotives, cars, and bridges in Pottstown. Pottstown’s population more than doubled from 721 in 1840 to 1,664 in 1850.

By 1880, Pottstown had become “Boomtown USA.” The iron factories were attracting hundreds of workers from Philadelphia and beyond. The population of 5,305 in 1880 had again more than doubled to 13,285 in 1890. The borough had also gained a gas company, a water company, an electric company, a five man police department, and three fire companies.

As the town grew, the industrial base diversified. The mid 1900s witnessed a gradual decline in Pottstown’s role as an industrial community, a trend consistent with industrial America nationwide. The opening of the Pottstown Expressway (Route 422) in the spring of 1985, connecting Pottstown with road access connections to the Pennsylvania Turnpike and major markets, established a new industrial base in the form of smaller, more competitive forms of industry. Pottstown enters the 21st century with optimism.