Blue Ball, Pennsylvania

This article is about the Lancaster County place. For the Clearfield County one, see West Decatur, Pennsylvania.
Blue Ball
census-designated place

Along US 322 approaching PA 23
Blue Ball

Location within the state of Pennsylvania

Coordinates: 40°07′07″N 76°02′50″W / 40.11861°N 76.04722°W / 40.11861; -76.04722Coordinates: 40°07′07″N 76°02′50″W / 40.11861°N 76.04722°W / 40.11861; -76.04722
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
County Lancaster
Population (2010)
 • Total 1,031
Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
 • Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code 17506
Area code(s) 717
GNIS feature ID 1169864[1]

Blue Ball is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in East Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania near 40°N 76°W. Blue Ball lies approximately 2 miles east-northeast of the town of New Holland, Pennsylvania at the intersection of US 322 and PA Route 23. As of the 2010 census the population was 1,031 residents.

Name and origin

The name originates from the Blue Ball Hotel, built more than two hundred years ago, which stood on the southeast corner of the PA 23-US 322 crossroads. The inn was torn down in 1997.[2] In the early 18th century, John Wallace built a small building in Earl Town at the intersection of two Indian trails, French Creek Path (Route 23) and Paxtang (Route 322). He hung a blue ball out front from a post[3] and called it "The Sign of the Blue Ball." Locals soon began calling the town "Blue Ball" after the inn. In 1833, Earl Town officially changed its name to Blue Ball. During Prohibition, the inn changed its name to Blue Ball Hotel.[2]

Trivia

The town's name is suggestive, alluding as it does to the slang term "blue balls" (1916), which refers to the sexual condition of temporary testicular and prostate fluid congestion due to prolonged and unsatisfied sexual excitement.[4] The publisher of Eros once asked that its magazine be mailed from Intercourse.[5] Intercourse and Blue Ball are often listed among the "delightfully-named towns" in Pennsylvania Dutchland, alongside Mount Joy, Lititz, Bareville, Bird-in-Hand, and Paradise.[6][7][8][9][10]

Notes

  1. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Blue Ball, Pennsylvania
  2. 1 2 SUNDAY NEWS, LANCASTER, PA,Pg. D-1, July 13, 1997
  3. ↑ "Some peculiar post office names in Berks". Reading Eagle. Nov 27, 1910. p. 11. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  4. ↑ Glenn, Jules (1969). "Testicular and Scrotal Masturbation". International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 50 (3): 353–362. PMID 5387383.
  5. ↑ Krassner (1963)
  6. ↑ Ward's quarterly (1965) p.109 quote:
    ...in such delightfully-named towns in Pennsylvania Dutchland as his native Mount Joy, and neighboring Lititz, Blue Ball, Bareville, Intercourse, Bird in Hand, and Paradise.
  7. ↑ Anderson (1979) p.214 quote:
    "...but anyone who names their towns Mount Joy, Intercourse, and Blue Ball can't be all bad. Obviously they have more on their minds than just religion."
  8. ↑ Museums Association (2006) p.61 quote:
    Which brings us to Intercourse. You can imagine my delight when I found out that the Amish call the town of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, their home. There seems to be a lot of explanations from locals trying to pass off the name as a bastardization of 'Enter Course' and so on, but seeing as there are other local towns called Blue Ball, Bird In Hand, and Mount Joy, I suspect that the person responsible had a very juvenile sense of humour. The town sits in upstate Pennsylvania and is a tourist trap for anyone even remotely curious about the Amish way of life.
  9. ↑ Rand McNally and Company (1978) p.52
  10. ↑ Mencken (1963) p.653 quote:
    In the years since then many of these names have been changed to more elegant ones,2 and others have vanished with the ghost towns they adorned, but not a few still hang on. Indeed, there are plenty of lovely specimens to match them in the East, in regions that were also frontier in their days, e.g., the well-known cluster in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania: Bird-in-Hand, Bareville, Blue Ball, Mt. Joy, Intercourse, and Paradise.
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