Mahoning Township is a small community with a big employer
Mahoning Township is home to Montour County’s largest employer, the Geisinger Medical Center. Many of the community’s 5,000 residents work at the hospital, which is the flagship location of the entire Geisinger Health System. “Everybody in town knows somebody who works there,” says Glen Cromley, a lifelong Mahoning resident and a township supervisor. “Unless you were born in Mahoning, the hospital is really the only other reason people live here.” Mahoning is on the outskirts of Danville, the county seat, where locals will find several grocery stores and a charming downtown district. Aside from being an employment hub with a convenient location, the township offers a slow-paced lifestyle. “We’ve only got two stoplights here,” Cromley says. “It’s truly just a small town that happens to have a massive employer in it.”
The median house price is higher than Danville’s
Housing here includes ranch styles, split levels and Colonial Revivals. Some homes sit on modest lots shaded by oak trees, while others have larger lots spread out across the area’s rolling terrain. The median single-family home price here is around $350,000, higher than Danville's median of about $245,000. Mahoning is on the northern banks of the Susquehanna River. Heavy rainfall can cause the waterway to overflow, so homes closest to it may be at risk of flooding.
The Geisinger Medical Center is expanding
Over 2,000 people work at the Geisinger Medical Center on the eastern side of Mahoning. The steel, stone and glass buildings house a Level I trauma center, a children’s hospital and a stroke recovery department. In 2025, workers broke ground to build another parking garage and an 11-story tower for a new emergency room and more private recovery suites. Construction is expected to be done by 2029. Until then, it may impact traffic around the hospital. “Roads are constantly closing and reopening, so it’s taking all of us more time to get to work, whether we work at the hospital or not,” Cromley says. Several nursing homes and Geisinger-affiliated medical offices are also in the area.
Danville public schools earn B grades or higher
The Danville Area School District serves Mahoning. Kids can attend Danville Primary, which Niche grades a B, and Liberty Valley Intermediate, which earns a B-plus. They may continue to A-minus-rated Danville Middle and B-plus-graded Danville Area High, where extracurriculars include the mountain bike team, the ski club and the environmental activist group. Commonwealth University’s Bloomsburg campus, 9 miles east, has over 80 undergraduate and graduate programs, including nursing and medical imaging.
Downtown Danville has restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner
Boutiques, medical offices and restaurants fill downtown Danville’s Italianate-style storefronts. “It’s got multiple places for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and that’s uncommon for small towns in Pennsylvania,” Cromley says. Locals can start their day at Old City Bagel Co., then grab a hoagie from the counter-service Danville Sub Shop for lunch. Beer steins decorate the walls of Old Forge Brewing Company, which serves pub fare and rotating ales and IPAs. There’s a farmers market on Ferry Street every Saturday between May and November, and grocery stores in the area include Giant and Weis Markets.
Locals can hike, hunt and fish in Mahoning
The Geisinger Health System owns and maintains the 300-acre Geisinger Stewardship Forest behind the hospital’s north end. Mountain biking and hiking trails stretch under dense red oak and Virginia pine trees. The land is also a bow-hunting ground, home to white-tailed deer and wild turkeys. Adjacent to the forest, Hess Recreation Area has soccer fields, a skate park and baseball diamonds. The area's covered wooden bridge stretches over Mahoning Creek, where anglers can catch smallmouth bass and brown trout. An 18-hole golf course, a barn-style wedding venue and an upscale restaurant are features of Frosty Valley Resort, a country club in eastern Mahoning. Danville has a few green spaces with boat launches, hiking trails and fishing spots on the Susquehanna River. Several houses of worship are in Mahoning, including the Basilica of Saints Cyril & Methodius, a Romanesque Revival-style convent built in 1939.
Only two stoplights in Mahoning
Though some streets have sidewalks, Mahoning is a car-dependent community. One of the township's two traffic lights is at Bloom Road and Academy Avenue, and the other is at Woodbine Lane and U.S. Route 11, which runs through the area. The highway connects with Interstate 80 and Interstate 81 to reach Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport, about 66 miles northeast.
