Martin Kaercher Sr. from Germany purchased two hundred fifty acres of land called Hamburg in 1772, and its natural features made it well suited to agriculture and farming, with milling becoming a lasting theme in the region’s history. Kaercher’s son laid out one hundred thirty-one lots in 1779, after which settlers used the area’s natural resources and helped begin the iron furnace industry era. Hamburg stood at the center of product and transportation markets as routes evolved from the Centre Turnpike, established in the early 1800s as a four- to six-foot-wide horse trail and later widened for wagons and stagecoaches, to the Schuylkill Canal system, first intended to move grain, iron, and lumber between Philadelphia and Pottsville before coal became dominant. The canal was most successful in the late 1830s, and coal transportation also led to an 1826 charter for a twenty-one-mile railway from Tamaqua to Port Clinton; the Little Schuylkill Railroad was completed in 1833 and was believed to be only the third operating railroad line in America at the time. In 1842, after the Pennsylvania and Reading railroad purchased the right of way, a train traveled the entire distance from Philadelphia to Mount Carbon along the Schuylkill River Valley, and until trucking rose, the railroad remained Hamburg’s main means of distributing goods. Located along the Schuylkill River and later at the intersection of two major highways, Hamburg remained a center of activity through the eras of canal travel, railroads, and automobiles and trucks. At one point it was said to have more jobs per capita than anywhere else in the country, with more than a dozen industries producing goods such as knitwear, ice cream, fire engines, batteries, and carriages, and firms including Penn Steel, Hahn Motors, and Exide Battery. Its industrial period employed thousands of people, supported blocks of homes and a community where people could live, work, and shop, and even provided provisions for both World War efforts. Hamburg Borough was organized in 1837, and its history also includes the 1904 construction of the Carnegie-sponsored public library, the first in Berks County, the first annual King Frost parade in 1910, the devastating flood of 1906, and the construction of a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1914. Alongside its foundries, mills, factories, and family-owned stores, Hamburg preserved a notable architectural legacy in its downtown and industrial buildings, some of which are being restored and reused.