Blue Ball is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

East Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania East Earl Township is a township in northeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 6,721. History The Spring Grove Forge Mansion and Henry Weaver Farmstead are listed on the National Regis ...

, United States. Blue Ball lies approximately east-northeast of the borough of New Holland at the intersection of

US 322 U.S. Route 322 (US 322) is a , east–west United States Highway, traversing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The road is a spur of US 22 and one of the original highways from 1926. A portion of it at one time was concurrent with the Lakes-t ...

and PA Route 23. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,095.

Etymology

The name originates from the Blue Ball Hotel, built more than two hundred years ago, which stood on the southeastern corner of the PA 23-US 322 crossroads. The inn was torn down in 1997.SUNDAY NEWS, LANCASTER, PA,Pg. D-1, July 13, 1997 In the early 18th century, John Wallace built a small building in Earl Town at the intersection of two trails created by native Americans, French Creek Path (Route 23) and Paxtang (Route 322). He hung a blue ball out front from a post and called it "The Sign of the Blue Ball". Locals soon began calling the town "Blue Ball" after the inn. In 1833, Earl Town officially changed its name to Blue Ball. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

, the inn changed its name to Blue Ball Hotel.

Name

The town's name has a suggestive second meaning, evoking the

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

term "

blue balls Epididymal hypertension (EH), informally referred to as blue balls for males or blue vulva for females, is a harmless but uncomfortable sensation in the genital regions during a prolonged state of sexual arousal. It usually resolves within ho ...

" (1916), which refers to the sexual condition of temporary

testicular A testicle or testis ( testes) is the gonad in all male bilaterians, including humans, and is homologous to the ovary in females. Its primary functions are the production of sperm and the secretion of androgens, primarily testosterone. The r ...

and

prostate The prostate is an male accessory gland, accessory gland of the male reproductive system and a muscle-driven mechanical switch between urination and ejaculation. It is found in all male mammals. It differs between species anatomically, chemica ...

fluid congestion due to prolonged and unsatisfied

sexual excitement Sexual arousal (also known as sexual excitement) describes the physiological and psychological responses in preparation for sexual intercourse or when exposed to sexual stimuli. A number of physiological responses occur in the body and mind as ...

. Blue Ball is often listed among the "delightfully-named towns" in

Pennsylvania Dutch Country The Pennsylvania Dutch Country (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Pennsylvanie Deitschland,'' ''Deitscherei,'' or ''Pennsilfaanisch-Deitschland''), or Pennsylvania Dutchland, is a region of German Pennsylvania spanning the Delaware Valley and South Central ...

, alongside Pleasureville, Intercourse, Mount Joy,

Lititz Lititz is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, north of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 9,370. History Lititz was ...

Bareville Leacock-Leola-Bareville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 6,625. The area is heavily populated by the Amish and Mennonites. Bareville is often ...

, Bird-in-Hand,

Fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

and

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

.Ward's quarterly (1965) p.109 quote: Anderson (1979) p.214 quote: Museums Association (2006) p.61 quote: Mencken (1963) p.653 quote:

Geography

Blue Ball is in eastern Lancaster County, in the western part of East Earl Township.

Pennsylvania Route 23 Pennsylvania Route 23 (PA 23) is an state highway in southeastern Pennsylvania. The route begins at PA 441 in Marietta and heads east to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) at City Avenue on the border of Lower Merion Township and Philadelphia. PA 23 begin ...

(Main Street) leads northeast to the

Pennsylvania Turnpike The Pennsylvania Turnpike, sometimes shortened to Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road which is operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in Pennsylvania. It runs for across the southern part of the st ...

at Morgantown and southwest through New Holland to

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

U.S. Route 322 U.S. Route 322 (US 322) is a , east–west United States Highway, traversing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The road is a spur route, spur of U.S. Route 22, US 22 and one of the original highways from 1926. A portion of it at one time was c ...

(Division Highway) crosses PA 23 in the center of Blue Ball; it leads northwest to Ephrata and southeast to Downingtown. Shirks Run which flows through Blue Ball, leading northwest to the

Conestoga River The Conestoga River (), also referred to as Conestoga Creek (), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed August 8, 2011 tributary of the Susquehanna River flowing through t ...

. It has a hot-summer

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers, and cold ...

(''Dfa'') like the remainder of Lancaster County. Average monthly temperatures range from 30.0 °F in January to 74.6 °F in July

The

hardiness zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most widely ...

is 6b.

Demographics

Notes

References

* Anderson, William Charles (1979
''Home sweet home has wheels: or, Please don't tailgate the real estate''
*Henry Louis Mencken, Raven Ioor McDavid (1963
''The American language: an inquiry into the development of English in the United States, Volume 1''
*

Museums Association The Museums Association (MA) is a professional membership organisation based in London for museum, gallery and heritage professionals and organisations of the United Kingdom. It also offers international membership. History The association w ...

(2006
''The Museums journal, Volume 106, Issues 1-6''
Indexes to papers read before the Museums Association, 1890–1909. Compiled by Charles Madeley. *

Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American writer and satirist. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key figure in t ...

(1963
''The Trial of Eros Magazine''
in ''

The Realist ''The Realist'' was a magazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire", intended as a hybrid of a grown-ups version of ''Mad'' and Lyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthly ''The Independent.'' Edited and published by Paul Krassner, ...

'' No.44, pp. 1
11
*

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation, and education markets. The company is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois with a di ...

and Company (1978
''Vacation & travel guide''''Ward's quarterly, Volume 1''
1965 {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania Census-designated places in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Census-designated places in Pennsylvania