Civic memorial · Dedicated 1897
John Pott Memorial
- Location
- Centre and Arch streets, Pottsville, PA
- Dedicated
- 1897
- Status
- Extant
- Coordinates
- 40.686262, -76.196297 · Open in Maps
The John Pott Memorial is a rough-hewn granite shaft in downtown Pottsville, raised in honor of John Pott, the ironmaster who founded the town and gave it his name. Its four lines read:
John Pott who founded Pottsville in the year 1806.
Erected in 1897
The memorial is a civic tribute rather than a state marker. A monument to Pottsville’s founder was proposed in the local press in 1895, and the granite shaft was erected in 1897 — the Miners’ Journal of April 1897 reported the preparations to erect the monument. By the time Schalck and Henning’s county history appeared in 1907, it recorded the memorial as already standing: “a granite memorial, erected in his honor by the city of Pottsville,” in “a neatly kept little park adjoining the grammar school building on Center street.” It is not a Pennsylvania state (PHMC) historical marker; the Historical Marker Database, which catalogs its text and location, lists no state sponsor.
The date it commemorates
The memorial dates Pottsville’s founding to 1806, the year John Pott bought the Reese & Thomas furnace on the upper Schuylkill — the industrial act from which the settlement grew. The town itself was laid out in lots a decade later, in 1816, so both “founding” dates coexist in the record: 1806 for the furnace, 1816 for the street plan. (The county’s own genealogical record dates Pott’s death to 1827 and, with the 1911 Britannica and the Hagley archive, his birth to 1759.)
Where it stands
The memorial stands in downtown Pottsville, at the corner of Centre and Arch streets. Schalck and Henning’s 1907 county history recorded it “in a neatly kept little park adjoining the grammar school building on Center street” — the 1865 building that today houses the Schuylkill County Historical Society, a short way up North Centre Street.
The founder it honors
- John Pott (1759–1827) — The ironmaster who founded Pottsville and gave the town his name — he bought the furnace on the upper Schuylkill in 1806, built the Greenwood furnace, and laid the town out in 1816. Not the John Potts who founded Pottstown.
Sources
- John Pott — Historical Marker Database (HMDB) marker #191048
License: reference - "John Pott Memorial — Preparing to Erect the Monument" — (Daily) Miners' Journal, Pottsville, April 23, 1897 (via Newspapers.com, image 362504972) · 1897-04-23
License: publisher - History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania (Schalck & Henning, 1907) — the granite memorial "erected in his honor by the city of Pottsville"
License: public-domain - Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania — genealogy and family history (J.H. Beers & Co., 1916) — the memorial plate (between pp. 170–171)
License: public-domain
Frequently asked
- When was the John Pott memorial erected?
- A memorial to Pottsville's founder was proposed in the local press in 1895, and the rough-hewn granite shaft was erected in 1897. The 1907 county history records it already standing in the little park adjoining the grammar school. It is a civic memorial raised by the city of Pottsville — not a Pennsylvania state (PHMC) historical marker.
- What does the John Pott memorial say?
- Its four lines read: "John Pott / who founded / Pottsville / in the year 1806." The 1806 date reflects the year John Pott bought the furnace on the upper Schuylkill; he laid the town out in lots a decade later, in 1816.
- Where is the John Pott memorial?
- At the corner of Centre and Arch streets in downtown Pottsville. Schalck and Henning's 1907 county history recorded it in a little park by the grammar school on North Centre Street — the building that today houses the Schuylkill County Historical Society.