Northumberland

Formed March 21, 1772 (10^th county)

Northumberland County (91,647), Sunbury (9,719)

The white brick facility was built in 1885 and is located at Market and 2^nd streets.  Market Street is Pennsylvania State Highway 61 in this part of the town.  The courthouse was enlarged in 1911 and 1915.  The Romanesque Revival and Italianate courthouse was designed by Samuel Sloan.  The county was created on March 21, 1772 from parts of Lancaster, Berks, Bedford, Cumberland, and Northampton counties as the 10^th county with Sunbury as the only county seat.  Northumberland County is named for Northumberland, England.  The county seat is named for Sunbury, England.  Northumberland County is the birthplace of 1 Pennsylvania governor, James Pollock. 

Northumberland County government consists of a sheriff and 3 Commissioners.  Four Common Pleas Court Judges and Four Magistrate Court Judges serve Northumberland County.  Northumberland County is in north central Pennsylvania.  The West Branch of the Susquehanna River is its western border and the Susquehanna River is its northeast border.  Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is south and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is southeast of the county.  The county center is 6.1 miles East of Sunbury in Snydertown.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Lycoming, Montour, Columbia, Schuylkill, Dauphin, Perry, Juanita, Snyder, and Union counties. 

The area of the county is 477 square miles.  It is 48 out of 67 in the state.  It ranks 32 out of 67 in population in the state.  It has a density of 192.1 persons per square mile making it 28 out of 67 in the state.  Northumberland County has 46.0% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 80 crosses the northern tip of the county east to west from Montour County to Union County.  Interstate Highway 180 comes in from the north, Lycoming County, and terminates.  United States Highway 11 enters from Montour County, east, and exits into Snyder County, west.  The county resembles a vacuum cleaner.  Sunbury is located on the western border of the county.  Sunbury is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 10.6% of the county population.  The county is pronounced NOR-THUM-BER-LAND.  This county is in the Sunbury Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Watsontown