According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 0.7 square miles (1.8 km2), all land.

The community's founder was Thomas Taylor Boswell, the first president and supervisor of the Merchants Coal Company.

[9] Merchants Coal attempted to build Boswell to be a notch above surrounding coal company towns in that plans included a central business district, a high school, and homes constructed from brick, as opposed to the wood used elsewhere.

Street names from north to south are: Quemahoning, Stonycreek, Center (in place of "Conemaugh" for the Conemaugh River), Main (in place of "Kiskiminetas" for the Kiskiminetas River), Allegheny, Ohio, Mississippi, Mexico (for the Gulf of Mexico), Atlantic and Pacific.

[11] By April 24, 1922, miners at Acosta, Gray, Ralphton, Randolph and Jenners also joined the strike,[12] which was to last sixteen months.

The town of Jerome appears to have been built as a satellite town, soon to be linked with Boswell, both underground in coal production and on the surface in social and cultural life (the right-of-way for a street car line was acquired between Jerome and Boswell, for instance).

However, local miners tell of the "Stone Wall," an unexpected and virtually insurmountable underground geological fault hit midway between Jerome and Boswell that prevented the linking of the two mines at a reasonable cost.

Evidence of this fault can be seen on the land surface near Route 601 about two miles (3 km) south of Jerome.

(Indeed, when mechanized deep-mining resumed in this area for a time in the late 20th century, the entry shaft was sunk adjacent to this fault, presumably so access could be had to the entire field.)

It can be speculated that Hillman had planned to use Boswell as its primary processing facility after the link-up, thus the huge tipple.

Hillman also likely planned to make Boswell the center of operations and community life (of evidence, the high school).

The high school is approaching its centenary and currently serves the two surrounding townships (Jenner and Quemahoning) and three boroughs (Jennerstown, Stoystown and Hooversville) in addition to Boswell residents.

Orenda Park,[1] a community forest and picnic area, has been established at the site of the former coal tipple.

[16] A remediation project was completed in 2005, spearheaded by SCRIP (Stonycreek-Conemaugh River Improvement Project), a non-governmental organization, in collaboration with OSM, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy, Somerset County Conservation District and Reliant Energy.

The discovery of the purple fringeless orchid, an endangered species, within the remediation site complicated the project.

The plants were relocated successfully to unimpacted wetlands immediately adjacent to the remediation site in 2004.