Fricks Lock Historic District, Pennsylvania
Posted by: Janila
N 40° 13.210 W 075° 35.470
18T E 449700 N 4452361
No longer inhabited and not accessible, there is an eerie feeling as one stands outside the fence of Fricks Lock, Pennsylvania. The property has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Waymark Code: WMZEKW
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 10/30/2018
Views: 6
Fricks Lock sits under the shadows of the nuclear towers of the Limerick Generating Station. The nuclear plant is also what caused the demise of this town. The company which built the plant is said to have bought out the home owners and rumor has it that they were given a very short notice to evict - 48 hours.
Fricks Lock was built as a canal town and operated as such until the railroads came through and eliminated the need for the canals. When the power plant was built, there was really no reason for the inhabitants to refuse the offers made to them to move.
There is a somewhat happy ending to this town's demise. From Wikipedia (
visit link) :
"In the late 1990s Paul S. Frick (1925-2014), in an effort to preserve the property along with family history, began compiling all of the historical information and then hired Estelle Cremers who lived in the area, to assist him. Paul paid for all the costs and work that led to the property being listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 2003. In February 2011, East Coventry Township partnered with Exelon Corporation to preserve and protect the historic site. Under this new agreement, Exelon effectively donated the land and eleven historic structures at Frick's Lock Village to East Coventry Township, valued at an estimated $1 million. In addition, Exelon will spend close to $2.5 million to stabilize and rehabilitate these historic structures"
Today the property is not accessible and the local police will cite anyone caught in the town with trespassing. There are ghost tours offered several times a year by Coventry Township and it is said that the longer this town sits empty, the more mysterious the feeling around it.