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Roaring Spring Borough

616 Spang Street
814-224-4814

Mission Statement
The purpose of the Association shall be to promote the Roaring Spring area through the sponsorship of commercial, cultural, educational, community, and other programs: and, in furtherance of such purpose, to engage in and conduct promotional programs and publicity, special events, decorations, cooperative advertising in the general interest and for the benefit of the Roaring Spring area and the members of the Association. The Association does not own any of the businesses and the use of the same is in the control of the owners/lessees of the properties. The Association shall be conducted as a non-profit organization, and no part of the profits (if any) shall inure to the benefit of any member or be used for any other purpose.

History of the Town
Roaring Spring was at first named Spang Mills, after the Spang family who owned a tract of land on which they operated a grist mill and around which the town grew. In 1863, Daniel M. Bare and his father purchased the land, and in 1865 Mr. Bare and others decided to build a paper mill, which began operating in April 1866. In 1887, Spang Mills became Roaring Spring.

The original triangular village contains block after block of single family homes whose styles reflect the periods of the paper mill's expansion and job growth. Many of the vernacular Carpenter Gothic homes lining the hilltop just south of the mill appear to date from the 1870's Farther away on a hillside southeast of the mill are dozens of Four-Squares and Bungalows presumably built after the expansion of 1912 and 1924.

To the east on yet another rise are dozens of Temple-Front and I-Houses types dating anywhere between the 1870's and 1890's. These periods of expansion in the mill's capacity (as well as those of the Blank Book Company) clearly are reflected in the town's population growth. Between 1870 and 1890, for example, the population multiplied over ninefold from 100 to 920; then between 1890 and 1930, that figure tripled to 2746.

It is said that the settlers of Roaring Spring were happy and friendly; they were anxious to share their good fortune with others. Maybe that is why the townspeople today are so pleased to share the beauty of their great spring, and why visitors return again and again.


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