This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
Phoenixville Mayor Peter Urscheler is happy to tout the many commercial and historical attractions of the borough, but he’s at his liveliest when he gets to rave about its welcoming culture.
The community of roughly 20,000 people, located along the Schuylkill River in Chester County, is a place where “every single person” is “safe, loved, and celebrated,” he told PA Local with audible warmth.
Once an industrial town lined with metal factories and textile mills, Phoenixville has in the past few decades grown into a hub for breweries, entertainment, and festivals honoring everything from dogwood trees to horror classic The Blob. It’s also experienced a surge of new residents, with its population growing by a third since the turn of the millennium.
Urscheler, a Floridian by birth, moved to Phoenixville in 2006 to work at a finance company. After eight years of frequent travel for that role, he started getting more involved in the community when he switched gears in 2014 to become a marketing consultant for local orgs. He sought the change so he could stay close to home and focus on caring for his aging parents, who’d moved in with him.
Both of his parents have since died — his father passed away the night after Urscheler’s swearing-in — but Urscheler says his constituents have become “in some ways, like an extended family.”
“I do believe there is something to be said that my dad knew that I was in a safe place,” he said.
For the first installment in a new, occasional “Meet a Mayor” Q&A series, PA Local spoke with Urscheler, who’s led the borough since 2018, about the many charms of the community and why he loves it.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
PA Local: Could you describe Phoenixville in three words?
Peter Urscheler: Quirky. Kind. And passionate.
What was it about Phoenixville that made you want to lead it?
I don’t know if it’s something in the water or what it is, but Phoenixville just has this feeling of care where people really care deeply about each other.
I could really feel that in my own experience. Especially when I left the corporate world and I wasn’t traveling as much and I really was kind of settling down … the community really embraced me. I’m an only child, so my actual family is all gone now — it was just my mom and dad and I — and so Phoenixville really became like an extension of my family.
How has Phoenixville changed over the time that you’ve been mayor?
We’ve continued to grow. I became mayor at a really interesting time, where we were kind of at the tipping point and starting to really become well known. And I’ve been very fortunate to be here through that process. We’ve … seen a number of new businesses moving into the community, restaurants and bars. A lot of development — we’ve had a lot of housing built in the time that I’ve been here as mayor. We’ve seen also a significant population increase.
What do you wish people who aren’t from Phoenixville, or don't live there, knew about your community?
I just wish people would know how incredible all of the people who live in our community are, that they really take care of each other. I would say we’re a very fun, very kinda quirky community. Sometimes people call us like a Stars Hollow out of the Gilmore Girls. Oftentimes, it looks like a Hallmark movie. But it’s also kind of fun and gritty at the same time, and people really just like being who they are, and I think we’re a community that allows people to express themselves, and we accept people for who they are. We aren’t trying to get people to fit in. We really want people to be here and belong.
What is your favorite Phoenixville hidden gem?
People totally underestimate the history of Phoenixville. Phoenixville is really, like — and I mean this in the funniest sort of way — related to something in our country, or in our world, in some way or another. There is always a tie back to Phoenixville.
Really? Do you have any examples you know off the top of your head?
The wrought iron interior that is used inside the Washington Monument was actually from Phoenixville. The man who wrote “The Bare Necessities” — like from The Jungle Book — is from Phoenixville, and buried in the cemetery here. Samuel Pennypacker, who was the governor of Pennsylvania, and from Phoenixville … laid the cornerstone, the foundation of the state Capitol that we know today.
Is there a particular Pennsylvania city, borough, or municipality you think we should feature in future “Meet a Mayor” installments? Let us know.
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