On Location: 239 - Port Royal, Pa.

Heritage: Pennsylvania Railroad

CT 1000, 1945: Eastern Region, Eastern Pennsylvania Division, Middle Division, Main Line

Middle Division ETT, 1954: Eastern Region, Middle Division, Main Line

Port Royal used to be named Perrysville, after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. At the time, the Port Royal post office was located in Saint Tammany town, just across the Tuscarora Creek. However, the Pennsylvania Railroad brought increased traffic through the area and prompted a move of the Port Royal post office into Perrysville in 1847. In 1874, the borough took on the name itself and Saint Tammany became known as Old Port.

Throughout the history of Port Royal, the general population was almost centered around agriculture. The rural counties within Port Royal include Turbett, Spruce Hill and Milford Townships, otherwise known as the Tuscarora Valley.

Port Royal (and Perrysville before it) once was a stop on the old main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Port Royal was, in fact, one of the first towns to be linked to the Pennsylvania Railroad system, as it lay along the Lewistown-to-Harrisburg stretch of the railroad—the first leg constructed after the new railroad was chartered. Located along the Juniata River, many forms of transportation passed through the small town as a result of the river being an essential transportation "highway" before automobiles.

However, the Pennsylvania Railroad station no longer exists. Port Royal was also the northern terminus of the Tuscarora Valley Railroad, a narrow-gauge railroad serving southern Juniata and northern Franklin counties. The railroad was decommissioned in the 1930s.

Valuation Maps

1928 Sanborn Map

Distance from Harrisburg...

Station (MP 46.2)

Public Delivery and Goodman Grain Co. (MP 46.2)

Volume 25, No. 88, of The Operative Miller indicates that "D. G. Bernstresser purchased the Port Royal, Pa., flour and feed mills from S. A. Goodman."

Breyer Ice Cream Co. No. 2 (MP 46.3)

At one time a creamery was located on Third Street near the Tuscarora Creek. In 1912 the Breyer Ice Cream Company operated a creamery at the old railroad transfer about one-fourth mile north on Third Street. The following note appeared in The Port Royal Times of February 14, 1912: "Mr. Madden, representing the Breyer Ice Cream Company of Philadelphia was in town last week and made arrangements for starting work on Monday morning on the milk condensed plant that will be located here." The April 17, 1912 issue of the Times further reported: "The mechinery for the Milk Condensery in Port Royal is now being installed. A well 120 feet deep has been drilled and has 100 feet of water there which will furnish an ample supply of water."

For the present the large warehouse building of the Tuscarora Valley Railroad Company will be used for this purpose. The building will be lined on the interior and a concrete floor and vats will be put down, and other changes will be made. When the milk supply has increased to the amount to warrant it, a new concrete building with all the modern conveniences and an ice plant will be erected.

lt is thought that everything will be in readiness to start business on the first of April. C. Ross Maffet has taken the contract for cutting and housing 500 tons of ice for use at this plant during the coming summer."

In 1919, a new bulding was built, but it was destroyed by fire in 1932, and rebuilt on the same site. The rebuilt building was torn down in 1939 and replaced by a more modern structure.

Eventually, in 1964, the operation was transferred to Millerstown and the Port Royal Creamery was closed.

The following note appeared in the July 15 1964 edition of the Port Royal Times: "After more than 50 years of continuous service to farmers in the area, Breyer's Creamery Plant at Port Royal was closed recently. The plant had been in continuous operation (7 days a week) ever since it opened in 1912, except for a few months in 1943, when it was severely damaged by fire. The seven milk haulers who previously shipped to the local plants will now haul all milk to the Millerstown plant."

H. C. Hower Lumber Co. (MP 46.5)

H C Hower & Elija Hower begin wholesale Lumber company in 1885.

Freight station from an earlier time.