New Albany Borough is the municipal government for a small community in southern Bradford County, Pennsylvania. The borough is surrounded by Albany Township, with U.S. Route 220 passing through the community and the South Branch of Towanda Creek along its eastern side.
New Albany today
Residents and visitors use the borough website to follow public meetings, read official records, find local services, receive community updates, and contact borough officials and staff.
Borough at a glance
- Municipality: Borough of New Albany
- County: Bradford County
- ZIP code: 18833
- Incorporated: December 6, 1879
- School district: Wyalusing Area School District
- Mailing address: New Albany Borough, PO Box 67, New Albany, PA 18833
Government and public services
An elected mayor and Borough Council conduct borough business during advertised public meetings. Borough services include public water and sewer service, public-record access, community information, and care of borough facilities and recreation areas.
- Learn about borough government
- Find borough services and resources
- View public meetings, agendas, and minutes
- Contact the borough
Community
New Albany is a close-knit community shaped by its waterways, transportation routes, local institutions, and generations of residents. The borough park provides space for recreation and gatherings, while nearby community organizations, churches, schools, and public services connect residents throughout the surrounding area.
A history of New Albany
From settlement to borough
Local histories describe Indigenous travel routes and dwelling sites along South Branch Towanda Creek before European settlement. In the early 1800s, members of the Ladd family were among the first European-American settlers in what became New Albany. Charles W. Ladd built a stone house here in 1819, and early residents established schools, places of worship, businesses, and postal service as the community grew.
The Berwick and Tioga Turnpike reached the area around 1818–1819, followed later in the century by the State Line and Sullivan Railroad. These routes connected New Albany with neighboring communities and supported local trade. The village was laid out in town lots in 1866 and formally incorporated as the Borough of New Albany on December 6, 1879.
A growing community
New Albany’s 1879 borough charter petition described a busy village with 44 homes, two general stores, mills, hotels, blacksmith and wagon shops, churches, and a community hall. A local history prepared by the New Albany Women’s Club in 1928 recorded later milestones, including a community water system, electric service beginning in 1912, and the consolidation of borough and township schools in 1920.
Work, transportation, and communication
Farming, lumbering, mills, and small manufacturing shaped the local economy. An oar-and-handle factory established in 1854 employed approximately 20 to 30 people and purchased local white ash. A local history records that freight and passenger trains began serving New Albany on November 26, 1867. The railroad helped residents ship hay, apples, flour, buckwheat flour, lumber, and other goods to larger markets; passenger service continued until 1933.
New technology and local institutions followed. Telephone service was authorized in the borough in 1902. The First National Bank of New Albany was organized in 1907 and served the surrounding dairy-farming and lumbering area until it merged with the First National Bank of Towanda in 1966. Beginning in the mid-1890s, New Albany also supported its own weekly newspapers: the Albany Weekly Mirror, the Albany Mirror, the New Albany Mirror, and, during the 1920s, the New Albany Leader.
Schools and community life
The area’s first schools were small night schools, followed by a one-room log schoolhouse built in 1813–1814. A borough grade school opened in 1886 after residents and students raised money for its bell. Albany Township and New Albany Borough organized a joint consolidated school in 1920, and a vocational high school building followed in 1925. New Albany joined the Wyalusing Valley Joint School District in 1953; the borough’s final high-school class graduated in 1955, and a new elementary school opened in December 1961.
Community organizations helped preserve learning outside the classroom. When the New Albany Women’s Community Club organized in 1921, establishing a community library was one of its principal goals. The club sponsored access to the State Lending Library, and in 1955 local volunteers organized another community library with support from the county library.
Industry and recreation
Local history credits the arrival of the Rynveld Wreath Company in 1946 with creating jobs and expanding New Albany’s manufacturing base. After serious fires in 1956 and 1959, residents helped the business continue operating. The company’s nationally distributed holiday products helped give New Albany the nickname “Wreath Capital of the World.”
Recreation also became an important part of community life. Construction of the New Albany swimming pool began in 1926, and the pool opened in 1928. It welcomed generations of residents before its final season in 1993. The borough park and pavilions continue the site’s tradition as a place for gatherings and special events.
Help preserve New Albany history
Do you have a historic photograph, document, correction, or story that could add to this page? Contact the borough at info@newalbanyboroughpa.com. Please include what is pictured or described, the approximate date, the names of people shown when known, and whether the borough has permission to publish it.
Sources and further reading
- Bradford County: New Albany Borough
- New Albany Women’s Club paper, May 16, 1928 (historic transcription; some names and words may require further verification)
- New Albany history and 1879 borough charter (PDF)
- 1966 Comptroller of the Currency report concerning the New Albany bank merger (PDF)
- Library of Congress Sanborn fire-insurance maps