Borough grew out of Lyon Station 
 

The railroad official who planned Lyons Borough in 1859 intended for the community to be a big, bustling city at the railroad line's half-way point between Reading and Allentown.

Today those planners might be disappointed.

With 500 people and an area occupying less that one-half of a square mile along the Fleetwood-Lyons Road, the borough is neither big or bustling.

And it isn't at the exact midway point of the line's East Penn branch between the larger cities. It sits about one mile west of the half-way point.

Lyons had been part of Maxatawny Township, to which settlers from the Oley Valley migrated as early as 1700.

In the 1850's, a farm owned by the Bowers family was recognized as the mid-point of the rail line, but in order for the station to be built on the land, the station - and the town that would develop around it - would have had to be named Bowers.

Residents didn't like that idea - although later a village named Bowers would appear - and the chief engineer of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, M. Evelyn Lyons, moved the train station's location to the west and named the site after himself. The Lyon Station served as a depot for Kutztown until 1870, when another line was built through the larger borough.

Until the borough was incorporated as the Borough of Lyons, the settlement was referred to as Lyons Station, the name the borough post office retains.

Because frequent trains passed through the small village, bringing goods and people, a variety of businesses grew in the town.

In the late 1800's, a carpenter, cooper, shoemaker, blacksmith, cabinet maker were among the tradesmen.

In addition to the railroad, the operation of mines and furnaces contributed to the early growth of the borough.

Although no mines or furnaces lie within the borough's boundaries, the East Penn Furnaces, situated just east of Lyons Borough in Maxatawny Township, the Sally Ann Furnace in Rockland Township and the Mary Ann Furnace in Longswamp Township drew settlers to the area.

Moses Kutz, who served as postmaster, fills his tank in front of the general store that contained the borough post office in this photo from 1940.

Lyons' post office - still named Lyon Station - is now in the next-door building.