Gordonville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Leacock Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Though rural in character, Gordonville is at the edge of the metropolis: Amtrak Keystone Service trains pass daily through the village on runs to Lancaster and Harrisburg to the west and Philadelphia and New York City to the east.
[citation needed] Gordonville is located on part of a grant of 2,300 acres (9.3 km2) of land to the Mary Feree family by the sons of William Penn.
On 17 April 1834 the first long distance steam train ran through Gordonville along the new Columbia Railroad; the 60-mile (97 km) journey from Lancaster to Philadelphia took about eight and one half hours.
Abraham Lincoln spoke from his train at nearby Leaman Place-Strasburg railroad junction on 22 February 1861, only one mile east of Gordonville; over 5,000 people were present.
The building of the famous (and now abandoned) low grade railway in the southern end of the Lancaster County in 1906 drastically reduced train traffic.
There is talk of a new station to be erected at Leaman Place, a mile east of Gordonville at the Strasburg RR junction, which would serve Amtrak and SEPTA trains.
The Annual Spring Sale and Auction of the Gordonville Fire Company and Ambulance Association, held the second Saturday of March, is the largest event of its kind on the East Coast.
On March 13, 1993 the fire company auction was abruptly closed at 10:00 am by state police, who announced that an unseasonable snowfall would eventually block the roads, stranding people in town.
At noon the last people to attempt to leave, a family which actively volunteered with the fire company, ambulance, and the spring sale, discovered that the roads were actually impassable.
During the blizzard, the fire company's ambulance crew handled several emergencies, taking people by snowmobile to Bird-in-Hand where, due to nearly continuous plowing, it was still possible to travel to Lancaster city by highway.