a borough of Chester (disambiguation)|Chester county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Schuylkill river at the mouth of French Creek, about 28 m. north-west of Philadelphia. Pop. (1890), 8514; (1900), 9196, of whom 2221 were foreign-born and 278 were negroes; (1910 census), 10,743. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Schuylkill division) and the Philadelphia & Reading railways, and by electric railway to Spring City (pop. in 'goo, 2566), 5 m. north-west of Phoenixville on the Schuylkill. Phoenixville is chiefly a manufacturing borough. Its blast-furnaces and iron mills were long among the largest in the country, and the manu facture of steel is still the borough's predominant industry. Phoenixville was settled in 1732, and was incorporated in 1849.