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Johnstown, Pennsylvania

city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ1070763
Source-derived summary

Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,411 as of the 2020 census. Located 57 miles (92 km) east of Pittsburgh, it is the principal city of the Johnstown metropolitan area, which had 133,472 residents in 2020. It is also part of the Johnstown–Somerset combined statistical area, which includes both Cambria and Somerset counties. Once a bustling industrial center, like many cities in the Rust Belt, Johnstown was severely affected by the loss of jobs in the steel industry due to globalization and the movement of American manufacturing to overseas markets.

History

Johnstown was settled by Europeans in 1770. Its population and economy expanded from the post-Civil War period well into the 20th century, as the Industrial Revolution stimulated manufacturing, mining of iron and coal, and the rise of the steel industry. These industrial jobs attracted migrants from the South and new groups of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe.

The city has suffered three major floods in its history. The Johnstown Flood of May 31, 1889, occurred after the earthen South Fork Dam collapsed 14.1 miles (22.7 km) upstream from the city during heavy rains.

Editorial summary

“Johnstown, Pennsylvania” enters the record as city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Johnstown, Pennsylvania and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2020, 1770, 1889—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1770. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Johnstown, Pennsylvania and city.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Johnstown, Pennsylvania” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Johnstown, Pennsylvania and city provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1070763. VIAF identifies the subject as 151276746. The Library of Congress control number is n81023151. Authority coordinates are 40.323, -78.921. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1770 and 1889.

Critical limits

A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Johnstown, Pennsylvania”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Johnstown, Pennsylvania primary sources, Johnstown, Pennsylvania archive and Johnstown research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Johnstown, Pennsylvania”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Johnstown, Pennsylvania” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.