History | The Levering Family | Industrial Revolution | 21st
Century Roxborough’s past, present, and future focuses on the
themes of community and entrepreneurialism. In 1690 William Penn
divided 11 tracks of land between the Schuylkill River,
Germantown border and Montgomery County. This land was sold at
auction and was divided into smaller tracts of land for farming
and settlement. While Roxborough is only nine miles northwest of
Center City Philadelphia in the 18th century there were
significant differences in the economic and social attitudes of
the two regions. Roxborough was isolated from Philadelphia due
to geographic obstacles. The Schuylkill River and Wissahickon
Creek served as land barriers and the steep hills and unpaved
roads made 18th century modes of transportation The second
differential to the City of Philadelphia was that the earliest
settlers that lived in Roxborough wanted to live a communal and
self-determining way of life. Many of the residents in Center
City Philadelphia were Tories and