Millersville sits just southwest of Lancaster city, close enough that a lot of people assume it's a neighborhood rather than a borough of its own. It isn't. It has its own borough government, its own history going back to the 1760s, and a university that has shaped the town since before the Civil War.
From blacksmith's village to college town
According to the borough, the village was founded in 1761 by John Miller, who ran a blacksmith shop and hardware store here on what was then farmland in Manor Township. It went by Millerstown for a while and became Millersville in the mid-1850s, right around the time the thing that would define it arrived. In 1855 the first Pennsylvania state normal school was founded here, a teacher training school that grew, over the next century and a half, into Millersville University.
John Miller's original homestead, built in 1763, is still standing and still in use. Today it houses the Millersville University police department, a 260-year-old building doing a very modern job.
For most of its history Millersville was the largest community in Manor Township rather than a town in its own right. It wasn't incorporated as a separate borough until 1932, which is late compared with a lot of Lancaster County boroughs and says something about how gradually the place grew: a village core first, then the school, then the houses that filled in around both.
Older core, newer streets, and a lot of rentals
That gradual growth shows up in the housing. Closer to the old village center and the campus, you'll find older homes with original or once-replaced wood windows and entry doors that have been through a lot of owners. Further out, the streets fill in with newer single-family houses built to more standard sizes, where a window replacement is usually more straightforward because the openings were framed to a spec instead of by hand.
Like a lot of college towns, Millersville also has its share of houses that are rented out rather than owner-occupied, and rental properties tend to collect a particular set of problems: a door that's been forced one too many times, a lock that no longer lines up, a sash that won't stay up, a cracked pane nobody reported. Plenty of those are window repairs or door repairs rather than replacements, and our guide to windows that won't stay up covers one of the most common of them. When a door really is past saving, a door replacement with sturdier hardware is usually the better long-term call for a property that sees a new set of tenants every year or two.
On the older homes near the village core, the usual cautions apply. Original openings rarely match a stock size, interior walls may be plaster rather than drywall, and anything built before 1978 can have lead paint in the trim layers. Our page on older homes goes into how we handle that, and our repair or replace guide covers how we decide whether an original window is worth keeping.
Frequently asked questions
Is Millersville part of Lancaster city?
No. Millersville is its own borough, incorporated in 1932, with its own borough government. It sits just southwest of the city, and we serve both.
Do you work on rental properties near Millersville University?
Yes. The work is the same as on an owner-occupied home, from a single door repair or broken sash to replacing several windows between tenants. We'll quote the work the property actually needs, not a whole-house package.
Are newer Millersville homes easier to fit with replacement windows?
Usually. Houses built in the last several decades tend to have standard-size openings, which makes ordering simpler. Older homes near the village core are more likely to need every opening measured individually, so we measure on site either way.