Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, United States

🇺🇸 Fleetwood, also called Schlegelschteddel in Pennsylvania Dutch, is a borough in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was home to the Fleetwood Metal Body company, an automobile coachbuilder purchased by Fisher Body and integrated into General Motors in 1931. The name lived on in the Cadillac Fleetwood automobile.

History The First National Bank in Fleetwood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Geography Fleetwood is located north-east of the centre of Berks County. It is bordered on the east, west, and north by Richmond Township and on its short southern edge by Ruscombmanor Township. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.0 square mile (2.7 km²), of which 0.004 square miles (0.01 km²), or 0.47%, is water.

Demographics There were 1,720 housing units of which 96.6% were occupied. The racial makeup of the borough was 95.81% White, 0.93% African American, 0.83% Asian, 0.73% from other races, and 1.69% from two or more races.

There were 1,662 households, out of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.3% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.8% were non-families. 25.3% of all households were made up of individuals living alone. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.92.

In the borough the population was spread out, with 22.1% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.9 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 112.5 males.

The following statistics are from the 2000 census The median income for a household in the borough was $48,621, and the median income for a family was $60,051. Males had a median income of $39,559 versus $26,321 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $21,600. About 2.5% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.5% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.

An Old Order Mennonite community resides near Fleetwood. The Old Order Mennonites in the area belong to the Groffdale Conference Mennonite Church and use the horse and buggy as transportation. There are several farms in the area belonging to the Old Order Mennonite community and a meetinghouse is located near Fleetwood. The Old Order Mennonites first bought land in the area in 1949.

Education The community is served by the Fleetwood Area School District, which operates Fleetwood Area High School, Fleetwood Area Middle School, and two elementary schools: Andrew Maier Elementary School and Willow Creek Elementary School. Richmond Elementary School was closed at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

Transport As of 2020, there were 18.85 miles (30.34 km) of public roads in Fleetwood, of which 2.00 miles (3.22 km) were maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and 16.85 miles (27.12 km) were maintained by the borough.

Pennsylvania Route 662 passes north-south through the borough, leading north toward U.S. Route 222 and south to Oley and Douglassville. By Park Road it is 12 miles (19 km) south-west to Reading. Berks Area Regional Transportation Authority (BARTA) provides bus service to Fleetwood along Route 22, which provides a route for workers to the East Penn Manufacturing Company plant in Lyons. Norfolk Southern Railway's Reading Line freight railroad line passes east-west through Fleetwood.