[1][2] The area was settled in 1749 after a ship bound for New York City carrying German settlers was blown off course and instead landed at Philadelphia.

[3] Their settlement was first called "Pleasant Corners", and a German Reformed Church was established.

[4] The inn was sold and renamed Larisons Corner Tavern, and was "one of the Old York Road's most popular taverns, which featured ballroom dancing downstairs and a gambling den upstairs where professional card players fleeced farmers of their hard-earned cash".

[3] By 1811, "the name Larisons Corner had become attached to the surrounding town", and the settlement had a blacksmith shop.

It featured chicken-catching contests, bingo, music, and milking cows, while gambling and alcohol were forbidden.