A Town in PA

Today I learned about a town. I was reading a cookbook looking for a Pot Roast recipe when I noticed that the publisher was located in a town named Intercourse, Pennsylvania. What?? I thought it was pretty funny, so I decided to do a bit of research, carefully of course! I turned to the almighty Wikipedia for my information and here's what I found..


"Intercourse, Pennsylvania (pop. roughly 1,000) is an unincorporated village in Leacock Township, Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. As with the nearby towns of Blue Ball and Paradise, Pennsylvania, Intercourse is a popular site for tourists on account of its name, which in modern times has acquired sexual connotations. Sign posts for the town are frequently targeted by thieves. Besides its name, Intercourse is also famous for its Amish communities. For this reason the movie Witness was filmed in Intercourse and For Richer For Poorer was set there, though not filmed in Intercourse.


Intercourse was founded in 1754. The community was originally named Cross Keys, after a local tavern. Intercourse became the name in 1814, and there are various theories to explain this; one possibility is that the name derived from a race course, the "Entercourse", at the intersection of the town's two major roads. Another is that at the time, the word "intercourse" had commercial connotations relating to business transactions, and that the area was named "Intercourse" in hopes that it would become a center of commerce. "Sexual Intercourse" was a secondary, legalistic meaning of the term. As the more general use of the term fell out of popular usage, the narrower meaning became the term's primary connotation."

What did you learn today?