Union Deposit: Connections, stories of our neighborhoods
Local historian Enos Boyer estimates approximately 700 people live in the village, which might be the oldest in South Hanover Twp. Union Deposit is unincorporated, meaning it has no municipal government.
The community is vastly different from the Route 39 corridor of South Hanover Township, which has undergone a building boom in the last 10 years. The population grew by about 30.4 percent, according to the 2010 Census, bringing the total to 6,248, said Penny Pollick, township manager.
South Hanover Twp. now has a shopping center, the Antique Auto Museum, several hotels and housing developments and four traffic signals.
Union Deposit, however, has been virtually untouched from this commercial expansion.
That wasn’t always the case.
Union Deposit had its boom when the Union Canal was a major shipping thoroughfare in the region between 1828-84, linking the Schuylkill and Susquehanna rivers.
“The town grew up because of the canal,” said Boyer, 82, who is one of a handful of residents who have made the village a lifelong home.