Pottstown

Pottstown, borough (town), Montgomery county, southeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Schuylkill River, 37 miles (59 km) northwest of Philadelphia. The region’s first iron forge (known as Pool) was erected there (1716) by Thomas Rutter, and the Coventry forge produced the first commercial steel in Pennsylvania in 1732. The town, laid out in 1753 by John Potts (an ironmaster whose father, Thomas, had been associated with Rutter), was known as Pottsgrove until 1815, when it was...