RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> York County >> KeysIndex...

Welcome to Keys ...

Keys is located in York County<1>.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Keys, you might consider that their post office opened in 1872.

Keys is 830 feet [253 m] above sea level.<2>.

Time Zone: Keys lies in the Eastern Time Zone (EST/EDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Keys: 717 & 223<3>

Communities Also Named Keys ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 5 communities that are also named Keys - they are located in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Newfoundland and Labrador and Oklahoma.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Keys.

Communities near Keys ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Keys.

  • Lancaster
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
  • York
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • York is located in York County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 43,907 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for York <4>
  • Elizabethtown
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
  • Columbia
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
  • Millersville
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Mount Joy
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Red Lion
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • New Freedom
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • West York
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the west)
  • East Petersburg
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Keys. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Keys.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Keys. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Keys.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Keys. See our Newspapers Page for Keys.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Keys ...

Looking for more information about Keys? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

While we are unaware of a Tourism page that is specific to Keys, there are neighboring communities that do have Tourism pages. A map of those communities can be found with our TripAdvisor Page for Keys.

Adding Keys to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Keys in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found (so far) for Keys was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<5>

From that list, the Keys post office opened in 1872. The Keys post office closed in 1907.

For more details, see References and Mentions for Keys.

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of Pennsylvania's counties, including York, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Keys - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<3>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 717 code has been Overlayed with the 223 area code. New phone numbers in the Keys area will be assigned with one of these codes: 717 or 223. As a result, placing a call in the Keys area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<4>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<5>A copy of the Blevins & Helbock Post Office list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/