Welcome to Middletown, PA

The borough of Middletown is located on the Susquehanna River in Dauphin County, PA, just nine miles southeast of Harrisburg and 106 miles west of Philadelphia. With a history that dates back hundreds of years, Middletown was first recorded as “A Susquehannock Indian Town” in the earliest maps of the area. Although William Penn had explored the mouth of the Swatara Creek and Susquehanna River in 1683, the Scotch-Irish and English were the first white settlers of the region, arriving sometime in the 1720’s. The settlement grew quickly as a trading center and a “post town,” and was given the name “Middletown” due to its location between Lancaster and Carlisle along the old Stage Coach Road laid out in 1736. During the Revolutionary War, Middletown served as a supple post for General Sullivan’s troops, and in 1744, Middletown residents drafted their “Resolves of Independence,” a document which contained many of the ideas incorporated into the final “Declaration of Independence.” At the culmination of the war, Middletown became part of the newly formed Dauphin County in 1785, and continued to support a variety of industries through trade, such as lumber, produce, grain, milling products and steel. At the turn of the 19th century, George Fisher, son of one of Middletown’s original settlers, established a town that came to be known as Portsmouth, located on the mouth of the Swatara Creek. Portsmouth developed a thriving mill industry, and was the intersecting point of the Union Canal, the Pennsylvania Canal and the Harrisburg-Lancaster Railroads. As both Middletown and Portsmouth land was gradually portioned out to new residents, the two towns merged into one in 1857, and kept the name of Middletown.

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