Ottsville ... or Red Hill?

Chuck Rudy of Edison submitted this postcard of the Ottsville Hotel, taken about 1900. A closer look reveals that the building’s sign reads “Hotel Red Hill.” Interestingly, for over a century, the village of Ottsville had two names — Red Hill and Ottsville. When the town of Red Hill opened its first post office in 1814, it became necessary to change names, since there was already a Red Hill in Montgomery County. Like many Bucks County villages, it took the name of its postmaster, in this case a man named Michael Ott. The area around the post office was referred to as Ottsville, but the larger part of the village to the south continued to be known as Red Hill for many years.

The hotel, built in the 1870s by Thomas Harpel, is still in operation today as the Ottsville Inn.