As the center of commerce, travel, and social life in Point Marion, downtown has seen significant activity since the town's initial establishment. English and German immigrants settled here in 1751, and in 1780 the Mason-Dixon Line established the border between Pennsylvania and Virginia. The first store, Morris and Keyser's, opened in 1880, and from 1900 to 1915 a downtown building boom created a dense commercial core. In 1907 Penn Street became the town's first brick-paved road, in 1922 a massive fire destroyed almost half of the downtown buildings, and in 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt's train passed through Point Marion. Although some of the earliest buildings have been lost, many landmark buildings from the turn of the twentieth century still stand and remain in use today.