Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Paxtang, PA

Paxtang is a small borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania — a suburb of Harrisburg that ranks as one of the earliest colonial settlements in South Central Pennsylvania.

Paxtang grew at the site of the Shawnee-Lenape village of Peshtank, a name meaning 'still waters,' on land that William Penn purchased for settlement in the early 1700s.

Paxtang was the organizing ground of the Paxton Boys, the Scots-Irish frontiersmen whose vigilante group murdered twenty Native Americans in the Conestoga Massacre.

Paxtang is home to the Old Paxton Church, built in 1740 — the oldest Presbyterian church building in continuous use in Pennsylvania and the second oldest in the United States.

Although the community was settled in 1722, Paxtang was not incorporated as a borough until 1914.

Paxtang had 1,648 residents at the 2020 census, and at the 2010 census its 1,561 residents lived in just 660 households.

Paxtang packs its population into only 0.41 square miles, giving it a density of roughly 4,000 people per square mile despite its quiet, old residential character.

Paxtang's population peaked at 2,039 in 1970 and has held in the 1,500-to-1,650 range ever since, even as the Harrisburg suburbs around it boomed.

Paxtang borders the city of Harrisburg to its west and shares the state capital's 17111 ZIP code.