Home Remodeling in Parkesburg, PA
Kitchens, baths and exterior work for the older blocks and the newer streets of Parkesburg borough.
Parkesburg was a farm settlement around the Fountain Inn, a tavern from about 1734, until the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad laid its tracks through in 1831 and put its repair shops, roundhouse and car shops here. The Pennsylvania Railroad moved those shops west to Harrisburg in 1861. In 1872 the borough was carved out of Sadsbury Township, and that same year Horace A. Beale moved his iron company into the empty shops. The Parkesburg Iron Company made charcoal iron boiler tubes until October 1926, and by 1912 the works could turn out a million tubes a year. The town it built is still divided by the railroad: the business core and houses to the south, and a second set of streets on a steep hill to the north, crowned by the Parkesburg School of 1899 to 1900, on the National Register since 1995 and now a retirement home.
The older blocks near the tracks belong to those railroad and iron decades, and later streets filled in around them, such as Parkesburg Knoll, single-family houses from about 1989 off West Bridge Street along Fifth and Sixth avenues. Trains still stop at the station on the Keystone Corridor. Dawson's serves the borough and the township roads around it, about an hour and ten minutes from Middletown.
Zoning first, then the code agency
Parkesburg handles its own permits, in two steps. The borough's zoning officer signs off first on any construction, installation or change of use. Only then does the building code official, who comes from the outside inspection agency the borough retains, issue the building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical or demolition permit and carry out the inspections. A building permit is needed before a building is put up, enlarged, altered or torn down, and since July 2025 each permit carries a flat administrative charge on top of the listed fee. A Parkesburg mailing address outside the borough line files with its own township instead.
A use and occupancy check at every sale
Parkesburg requires a use and occupancy permit whenever a property sells, and the sale carries an obligation to bring the property into compliance with code requirements. Rentals are registered and inspected too, with a permit good for two years or until the tenant changes. That shapes how to plan a remodel here. Work done under a permit and closed out with final inspections will not come back as an open item when the house is sold, and a buyer who takes on a list from the resale inspection usually has a stair, a bath or an exterior repair to settle before the kitchen.
Houses on both sides of the tracks
The older houses near the tracks and up the north hill have plaster walls, narrow lots and kitchens at the back. The kitchen gains the most from taking out the wall to the dining room and running the cabinets along one wall where the water already comes in. A bathroom squeezed into a former bedroom corner gets new framing under the tile, a vented fan and a floor that is level again. On the hillside streets the grade drops away, so a rear addition often needs a taller foundation on the low side, and a deck off the back can sit a full story above the yard. The 1989 houses at Parkesburg Knoll are due for their first big round: the original kitchen, the hall bath, and windows and siding at the end of their service life.
Dawson's serves Parkesburg for kitchens, bathrooms, basements, additions, windows, siding, decks and carpentry.
Nearby, Dawson's also serves Atglen, Coatesville, Thorndale and Lincoln University.
Parkesburg is part of the Chester County, PA service area.
Ready to plan a remodel in Parkesburg?
Call Dom with the address and the project, or send the details through the form. The walkthrough is free and the estimate comes in writing.