Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Boyertown, PA

Boyertown is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, that was laid out by 1835 and incorporated in April 1866, taking its name from the Boyer family of early settlers.

On January 13, 1908, the Rhoads Opera House fire killed 171 people in Boyertown, still the deadliest disaster in the community's history.

The Boyertown Burial Casket Company, founded in 1893, grew into the second-largest casket maker in the world during the 1960s and 1970s, employing over 1,000 people and producing more than 60,000 caskets a year.

Boyertown-made caskets were used for famous figures including Marilyn Monroe and Robert F. Kennedy, and Harry Houdini commissioned a custom Boyertown coffin for his famous escape act.

When the casket company closed on October 31, 1988, Boyertown lost its largest employer, and residents later launched the Building a Better Boyertown organization to revive the downtown.

Boyertown's population was 4,264 at the 2020 census, up 5.2 percent from 4,055 in 2010, with roughly 1,900 households in the borough.

The borough covers only about 0.8 square miles, giving it a population density of more than 5,500 people per square mile.

The Colebrookdale Railroad's Secret Valley Line runs tourist trains from Boyertown over a rail bed first opened in 1869 by returning Civil War soldiers.

The Boyertown Museum of Historic Vehicles, opened in 1965 inside a former 1872 carriage factory, displays more than 90 historic vehicles built in Pennsylvania.

Local students attend schools in the Boyertown Area School District, home of the Bears.