Hensingersville, Pennsylvania facts for kids

Hensingersville, also known as New Hensingersville, is a small community in Pennsylvania. It's not a city or town, but an unincorporated area. This means it doesn't have its own local government. Most of Hensingersville is in Lower Macungie Township, in Lehigh County. A small part also stretches into Longswamp Township, in Berks County. You can find it near where several roads meet, like Pennsylvania Route 201.

This community is just south of Alburtis and Lock Ridge Park. It sits where two streams, the west and east branches of Swabia Creek, join together. Hensingersville is part of the larger Lehigh Valley area. This area is home to over 860,000 people. It was the 68th most populated metropolitan area in the U.S. in 2020.

History of Hensingersville

How the Community Began

In 1846, a man named Peter Hensinger built a hotel here. Because of his hotel, local people started calling the area Hensingersville. Twelve years later, in 1858, a post office opened in Hensingersville.

That same year, the Philadelphia and Reading Railway started a train stop a few miles north. This new stop was in what is now Alburtis. Because of the train, the post office moved from Hensingersville to Alburtis. Some people say a ghost named Bucky haunts the Old Hensingersville Hotel!

The Hensingersville Dam

The Hensingersville Dam is located south of the community. It was built in 1936 on the east branch of Swabia Creek. This creek flows into the Lehigh River. The dam is owned by the Alburtis Borough Authority. People use it for fun activities like recreation.

The dam is made of earth and concrete. It is 18 feet tall and 135 feet long. It can hold a lot of water, about 51 acre-feet. Normally, it stores about 3 acre-feet of water. The surface area of the water is about 1 acre. The dam helps drain an area of about 0.4 square miles.

Where is Hensingersville?

The community of Hensingersville is located at an elevation of 489 feet above sea level. It appears on the East Greenville USGS survey maps as a place where people live. Hensingersville uses two different ZIP Codes. Part of it uses the Alburtis ZIP Code, which is 18011. The other part uses the Macungie ZIP Code, 18062.

Schools in the Area

Hensingersville is part of the East Penn School District. Students in grades nine through twelve attend Emmaus High School in Emmaus. Younger students, in grades six through eight, go to Eyer Middle School or Lower Macungie Middle School. Both of these middle schools are located in Macungie.