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Educator, Mother, Musician
Where do I live, anyway?
We’ve got a bit of an identity crisis here in Limerick or Royersford or Spring City or Spring-Ford, or wherever we are. When I moved into the 19468 zip code twelve years ago, I was told I lived in Limerick. These days, it depends on what utility company, corporation or neighbor I’m talking to with regard to where I actually live. And today, the local Patch asked a similar question: What should our Patch be called? Most of Royersford and Limerick are part of the Spring-Ford School district, but some of Spring City is Owen J. Roberts, and some of Royersford, I think, is Perk Valley. This area has grown rapidly over the last fifteen years, but, even so, we should still be able to figure out what town to write on applications and on the front of an envelope.
One of the ‘problems of location’ seems to be that according to USPS.org and their white pages search, the address of the Limerick Post Office is 327 W RIDGE PIKE STE A ROYERSFORD, PA 19468-9996. How is the Limerick post office now located in Royersford? And, maybe a better question is why? The uncertainty of location is by no means the worst thing in the world. In fact, it’s sometimes kind of interesting to potentially have dual towns as a residence. But, it does tend to be a bit of a pain when I need to give my exact mailing address to verify my identity and I don’t know which one company A or utility B has on file. As well, are there larger implications to the separation of Royersford Borough and Limerick Township that need to be addressed with regard to the 19468 zip code? And, where does Spring City and their 19475 zip code fit into all of this? Perhaps it’s part internet and the dying art of mail that’s to blame for the confusion. And maybe in another few years we won’t even need zip codes. But for now, and before we figure out what to name our local patch, maybe we could start a conversation about where Limerick ends and Royersford begins.
David Powell
4:38 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
There are a number of good map resources online that help make sense of this question. The Postal Service's idea of what's where can be found on this customized Google Map:
http://maps.huge.info/zip.htm
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, meanwhile, has another customized Google Map that clearly shows the actual municipal boundaries:
http://www.dvrpc.org/asp/CensusMap/
For news coverage purposes, I treat the municipal boundaries of Limerick Township, Royersford Borough, and Spring City Borough as my "core" beat. I will often cover events in adjacent areas that have a Royersford or Spring City zip code, particularly if they're school (i.e., Spring-Ford) related. Note, also, that big chunks of Limerick have Schwenksville and Pottstown zip codes.
Chris Hoffmann
6:10 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
I was going to touch upon Sanatoga as well, and the fact that a major development there is split right down the middle, but I was considering my space constraints. Half of that development has a Pottstown zip and the other has a Limerick zip, so people who live across the street from each other in the community may potentially attend 'rival' school districts. I think much of this 'where do we live' question I'm raising also stems from what we historically define our local communities as and what they now have the capacity to be. Can a zip code, township, school district, development, etc. make us a community, or is it our job as citizens to make it such regardless of the boundries?
PrinceOfPrussia
8:52 pm on Friday, May 13, 2011
All I know is that according to Piazza Honda and Piazza Hyundai - we're in Pottstown!
John C
9:57 pm on Saturday, May 14, 2011
If you speak of municipalities, SPring City Borough is all Spring-Ford School District and none of it is in Owen J. Roberts. However, if you go by post zip code, yes the portions of East Vincent that use Spring City's Zip code are in Owen Jay as parts of East Pikeland Township that use Spring City Zip code are in the Phoenixville School District.
Diane Moore
10:19 pm on Monday, May 16, 2011
Where do you leave the Upper Providence People? We're Spring-Ford . .. but mailing addresses can be Royersford, Oaks .... and I think Phoenixville?
Why not just make it Spring-Ford?
Tom Thunstrom
5:38 pm on Tuesday, May 17, 2011
I like the idea of calling it Spring-Ford...all of this patch's area is within the S-F District. For those like me in Upper Providence (who split mailing addresses between Royersford, Collegeville, Phoenixville, and Oaks depending on zip code), the township identity isn't used as much (how many folks use "Upper Providence, Montgomery County, PA in our mailing labels)!
Spring-Ford is our greater community...and tends to be representative of the area this site serves...which also includes Upper Providence. There's a good chunk of Upper Prov readership on this site (you see occasional commenters from U-P)...wouldn't mind seeing more U-P news even if it overlaps with the Oaks section of the township.
Polonium 210
5:59 am on Monday, May 23, 2011
And oddly enough, the Spring City Elementrary School is in East Vincent Township Township, which is part of the Owen J. Roberts School District.
Bruce Bailey
8:22 am on Monday, May 23, 2011
1 - Agree that Spring-Ford is a logical coverage area for this website, with full coverage of Upper Providence included. Coverage of the UP Repub primary shows that there's already good readership, & UP is the largest of the four towns that make up the Spring-Ford district.
2-You learn something new everyday...I had no idea that SC Elementary was outside the SC border. But the DVRPC map referenced above shows that it's true. Wonder how that happened - anyone know?
Diane Moore
3:52 pm on Monday, May 23, 2011
I think the land for Spring City Elementary was donated after the horse racing ended there.
David Powell
6:08 pm on Monday, May 23, 2011
That's interesting, Diane. I didn't know there used to be a racetrack at that site.
PrinceOfPrussia
5:07 pm on Monday, May 23, 2011
I think its a "made up" designation but I sort of like the "Spring Valley" name that the YMCA chose to use in this area. In that regard, I think the whole Royersford, Spring City, Upper Providence, Limerick area could be known as Spring Valley. If not that then the "Spring-Ford Area" isn't a bad choice.
Chris Zabaska
10:09 am on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
One correction I have is Spring City Elementary is in Spring-Ford School District not OJR, Vincent Elementary School is in East Vincent Twp on Ridge Rd. and is in the OJR School District
PrinceOfPrussia
1:14 pm on Tuesday, May 24, 2011
The Spring City Elementary is part of the Spring-Ford Area School District but the actual building and grounds are physically located in East Vincent Township which is in the Owen J Roberts School District. If hypothetically someone lived in the Spring City Elementary - they'd go to school at OJR! The borders of the township and the borough run down Wall Street at that part.