Originally built to support nearby rust belt industries, the hamlet is between the center and eastern thirds of the Southern Anthracite Coal Region.

The community is part of a wide-ranging township and is situated atop a summit and drainage divide flanked by two long climbs that are traversed by local transport infrastructure, railways with an important switching junction within the village, and Pennsylvania Route 54, which collects towns like beads on a string along a particular combination of connected valleys in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians.

[3] This village owes its origin to the building of the Little Schuylkill and Susquehanna - Catawissa Railroad, which was completed in 1854.

With easy access by train it became an entertainment center with a large hotel on the grounds, bathing houses bordering the lake, and cottages on the water.

That park, too, incorporated swimming, rides, a playhouse and, a Crystal Ballroom, opened in 1925, one year after Lakeside's.