Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near East Intercourse Intercourse, PA

Intercourse is an unincorporated village and census-designated place in Leacock Township, Lancaster County, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish country.

The 2020 census counted 1,494 residents in Intercourse, up from 1,274 in 2010, and the Census Bureau classifies the entire CDP as rural.

The village began in 1754 as Cross Keys, named for its first building, the Cross Keys Tavern, a log tavern at a busy colonial crossroads.

In 1814 developer George Brungard renamed the village Intercourse while laying out 151 building lots to be sold by lottery for $250 each.

Nobody knows for certain why the name Intercourse was chosen: theories point to the crossing of two major roads, an old racetrack entrance called 'enter course,' or the word's old meaning of social fellowship and commerce.

When the name was questioned in the early 1950s as the village prepared its bicentennial, residents voted to keep it.

Intercourse sits about 10 miles east of the city of Lancaster on Route 340, the Old Philadelphia Pike, at its junction with Route 772.

The building now known as The Old Country Store began as Jacob Wenger's store in 1833, and a jam-and-jelly business started in the village in 1954 grew into one of Lancaster County's most-visited shopping destinations.

Many Intercourse residents are Amish or Mennonite, and horse-drawn buggies remain a common sight on the village's roads.