LANCASTER, a town of the United States of North America, capital of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, is situated near the right bank of Conestoga Creek, an affluent of the Susquehanna, 70 miles W. of Philadelphia by railway. It is one of the oldest towns of the state, and was capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812, when the government was transferred to Harrisburg, the present capital. Its streets are regularly laid out, and the houses are substantial and commodious edifices, mostly of brick. The chief public buildings are—the county prison, the new court-house, an elegant edifice in the Grecian style, and Fulton Hall, for public meetings and assemblies. Franklin College, which was founded here in 1787, but afterwards declined, has been recently united with Marshall College of Mercersburg, and a building called Franklin and Marshall College has been erected.
The cotton manufacture is carried on with much success here, as well as that of rifles, carriages, and threshing machines. The population is, for the most part, of German origin. Lancaster is well supplied with churches and schools, and public libraries. It has 16 churches, 5 being Lutheran and German Reformed, 2 Roman Catholic, 2 Presbyterian, 2 Methodist, and the rest belonging to smaller sects. Lancaster was founded in 1730, and incorporated as a city in 1818. Pop. (1840) 8417; (1850) 12,369; (1854) about 14,000.