The York Water Company
York, York County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1816, members of the York community came together and formed this company to protect the town from fire and to provide a clean, reliable supply of drinking water. This early example of a public "“ private partnership is the nation's oldest investor-owned utility and York's oldest business. As a publicly traded company York Water has issued dividends to share-holders since 1816 and established the American record for consecutive dividends.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
In 1816 members of the York community banded together to guard their town against fire and to secure a clean, dependable water supply, forming what became the York Water Company. Structured as an early public-private partnership, it grew into the nation's oldest investor-owned utility and York's oldest business, paying uninterrupted dividends to shareholders since its founding.
Why it matters
The company shows how early-republic communities pooled private capital to solve public needs like fire protection and clean water, a model of civic infrastructure that spread across a growing nation.
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Related events
- · Founding of the York Water Company (1816)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
James Smith
York, PA · est. 1949
James Smith, who lies buried in this churchyard, was one of Pennsylvania's signers of the Declaration of Independence. A York lawyer of Irish birth, he raised a company of Associators—citizen-soldiers—early in the Revolution and served in the Continental Congress. He was also an ironmaster, part of the frontier industry that helped arm the American cause.
William C. Goodridge
York, PA · est. 1987
Born into slavery in 1805, William C. Goodridge built a remarkable life of enterprise in antebellum York. Tanner, barber, and newspaper distributor, he prospered enough to raise York's first five-story building and to run a small fleet of rail cars. Those same cars did quieter, riskier work: carrying freedom seekers northward along the Underground Railroad.
"York House"
York, PA · est. 1967
Built in 1860 for Charles Billmeyer, a prosperous manufacturer of railroad cars, this York mansion showcased the confidence and wealth of a booming industrial age. Its hand-painted ceiling and elaborate interior ornament made it a showpiece of high Victorian taste. The house reflects how the railroad boom lifted local industrialists into the ranks of America's new moneyed class.
Hall & Sellers Press
York, PA · est. 1949
On this site stood the first printing press west of the Susquehanna River, operated by the firm of Hall and Sellers. When the Continental Congress fled to York from September 1777 to June 1778, this press turned out government publications and Continental currency for the struggling revolutionary cause. It was during Congress's stay here that the Articles of Confederation were adopted, making York briefly the seat of the young nation.