Kistler was initially established to meet the needs of a large manufacturing plant by providing comfortable homes for its workmen within close proximity of the factory.

The MURC sought to design and implement an industrial village which provided the best home and surrounding environment for its employees, in the hope that this would achieve the highest possible working efficiency.

John Nolen was a prominent planner of his time, producing nearly four hundred planning projects, with more than 25 of those company towns.

MURC acquired a land parcel of approximately sixty acres on the opposite side of the river from the works, in order to reduce the potential spread of dust, dirt and noise.

[6] The site of the planned town was triangular in shape, bordered by the Juniata River, the Pennsylvania Railroad Topography and preexisting agricultural land.

Although there was no definite axis in John Nolen’s design, the centre point of the plan was said to be the major recreational facility, ‘Kistler Green’.

In the early stages of the development while the streets would not have been prone to large volumes of traffic throughput they served a secondary purpose; play spaces for children.

[6] The large amount of open areas in Nolen’s design retained the natural woods which included willow, locust, sycamore, persimmon and black and white oak.

The design aspired to provide not only comfortable housing and surrounds, but equally importantly it attempted to promote a sense of belonging and citizenship among the residents.

John Nolen discusses the success of Kistler and its design in his book New Towns for Old (1927) when he states that ‘there are few places in this country where the problem of low cost housing, primarily for the unskilled worker has been better solved for the employer and employee alike.