How did Churchville, Pennsylvania get it’s name? This page provides a brief history about the naming of Churchville, Pennsylvania, the people who settled it, and the industry rising within it.
Village at the intersection of Bristol Road and Feasterville and Richboro Turnpike Road (Route 232) and on the township line between Northampton and Upper Southampton. Churchville station is on the line of the Philadelphia, Newtown and New York Railroad. The first name of Churchville was Smoketown. The only explanation advanced for the origin of this name is that the early Holland Dutch settlers brought their old country habits and long-stemmed tobacco pipes with them to this country, and being habitual smokers the non-smoking settlers called the neighborhood Smoketown. The old North and Southampton Reformed Church, which traces its origin back to “The Church of Bensalem and Sammeny” of 1710, built two churches to accommodate the scattered Low Dutch Reformed dwellers, one at Feasterville for the Southampton members in 1737 and one for the Northampton members at Addisville, now Richboro, in 1751. Both church buildings became dilapidated by 1813 and the congregations decided, instead of repairing the old structures, to build a new one at a more central location. The North and Southampton Reformed Church building was therefore erected in 1816 at Smoketown, which thereafter became known as Churchville. The church edifice was remodeled in 1902-03 at an expense of $10,000, and June 14-16, 1935, the congregation celebrated its 225th anniversary with an informal “homecoming day” gathering and an elaborate program of special music, addresses, greetings from neighboring clergymen and a communion in which the old communion service was used by the Great Consistory in distributing the elements.
Source: MacReynolds, George. Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, 2nd Edition. Doylestown, PA: The Bucks County Historical Society, 1955.