RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Chester County >> Mortonville >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Mortonville, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Mortonville and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Mortonville:
    • 39.946537, -75.777615
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Mortonville
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Chester County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chester County
    • Since Mortonville is near New Castle County and also Lancaster County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for New Castle County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lancaster County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Mortonville

Communities Also Named Mortonville ...

We found two communities that are also named Mortonville.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Mortonville is unique.

Beyond Pennsylvania, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Kearny County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Kansas community of Mortonville [Kearny County].
    • Ohio
      • Athens County
      • This community is historic<2> and although located in Athens County, we don't know where within the county.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Athens County community of Mortonville.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Mortonville ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Buck Run
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Coatesville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Doe Run
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Doe Run is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Doe Run
  • Fisherville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Fisherville is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fisherville
  • Gallagherville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Gallagherville is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gallagherville
  • Goosetown
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Goosetown is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Goosetown
  • Green Lawn
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Green Lawn is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Lawn
  • Romansville
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Romansville is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Romansville
  • Spruces
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Spruces is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spruces
  • Towerville
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Towerville is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Towerville
  • Unionville
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Wagontown
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Wagontown is located in Chester County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wagontown

How Far From Mortonville to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers, Almanacs & Directories that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Mortonville to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<4> beginning in Mortonville and extending to:

  • West Chester, which is the Seat of Chester County, lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<4> to the east. If you could walk a straight line from Mortonville to West Chester, with an average speed<5> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take four to five hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take a little over three hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 62 miles [99.8 km] to the west northwest (WNW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 98 miles [157.7 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The shortest distance<6> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,800 miles [9,334.2 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,507 miles [10,472 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,383 miles [7,053.8 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<9>'

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Mortonville could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<2>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Mortonville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Mortonville) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<5>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<6>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Mortonville to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Mortonville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.9465, Longitude: -75.7776       In this case, the coordinates for Mortonville have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.067 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 302.669 degrees.
<9>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 303.76 degrees.