Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Marietta, PA

Marietta is a borough in western Lancaster County, located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River northwest of Columbia.

The town grew from several rival layouts: a lottery by James Anderson laid out part of present-day Marietta in 1727, the town of New Haven was laid out at the east end in 1803, and Waterford at the west end in 1804.

New Haven and Waterford were merged and incorporated as the borough of Marietta in 1812, making it the first borough to be incorporated outside of what is now the city of Lancaster.

Marietta's name is traditionally explained as a blend of Mary and Etta, for Mary Cook and Etta Anderson, women connected to the town's founding families.

The Pennsylvania Canal was constructed through Marietta in the late 1820s, and planing mills, lumber yards, and Susquehanna raft traffic became the backbone of the local economy; the last raft arrived in 1911.

From 1845, iron smelting left its mark on Marietta, with as many as six furnaces and a rolling mill constructed on land immediately adjacent to the borough.

In 1863, as Confederate forces approached during the Gettysburg campaign, Marietta's riverbanks were fortified, and the First National Bank of Marietta became the first chartered bank in Lancaster County and the 25th chartered bank in the United States.

Marietta is remarkable for its preserved 19th-century streetscapes: roughly 430 properties in the borough are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Marietta Historic District.

Other National Register landmarks in and around Marietta include the Ashley and Bailey Silk Mill, the Joseph Bucher House, the Linden House, and the Chickies Historic District, and the borough abuts Chickies Rock, a dramatic geological outcrop above the river.

Marietta's population has stayed near 2,500 for most of its history and was 2,633 at the 2020 census.