Georgetown, the second oldest town in Beaver County, lies on a high plateau on the left bank of the Ohio. Situated in the southeast corner of the County, it overlooks parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Since 1789, the village of Georgetown had been known to westbound riverboat travelers as a stopping off place, and on January 13, 1793, a town was laid out by Benoni Dawson. Populated mainly by captains, pilots, engineers, and others related to the boat industry, the town grew rapidly. Some of the family names included the Dawsons, Mackalls, Calhoons, Kinseys, and the Poes. One ancestor in the Poe line was Captain Jacob Poe whose home still stands. Georgetown had a good trade in food and other supplies for the many boats which stopped there and for the settlers in the area around it. A traveler passing through Georgetown in 1807 noted the "considerable thoroughfare of travelers" and described the village as containing "about thirty houses in a fine situation on a narrow plain extending from the high river bank to the hills which surround it like an amphitheatre. "
Eventually, a road to Pittsburgh was built, and Dawson's Ferry (later Smith's) went into operation to carry traffic north. The first hotel in Georgetown was licensed in 1802, and the post office was established in the same year. Other hotels were John Cameron's Red Lion and one run by David Pinkerton. The last hotel license was issued to John D. Mackall in 1862. Several years later, in 1866, the sale of intoxicating liquors was forever prohibited in the area-no doubt a considerable change for Georgetown's older residents who could remember the days when, as one 1818 traveler described it, Georgetown consisted of "about a dozen log houses, one-fourth of which are taverns...." St. Luke's Episcopal Church, built in Georgetown in 1814, is the oldest Episcopal Church in Beaver County and one of the first west of the Alleghenies. Its brick edifice, built in 1833, and the white frame Methodist Church of 1877 constitute the town's remaining landmarks today.
Formerly part of Greene Township, Georgetown became a borough in 1850. In the last seventy- five years, the population has been steadily declining. The river packets stopped landing in favor of the industrial towns that grew up along the river. The ferry had been Georgetown's only traffic link to the north, and it quit operating in the 1960's further isolating the town-the only point of entrance today being the road from Hookstown.
Georgetown residents today feel threatened by sand and gravel quarries on either side of the town, which rests on a ridge of gravel remaining from the glacial period. A barge repair facility is located off shore, continuing the town's historic association with river transportation. A pipeline to carry fly ash slurry from the power plants at Shippingport to a huge reservoir on nearby Little Mill Creek has just been completed along the recently abandoned railroad line through town.
Along with neighboring communities, Georgetown is part of the Southside School District.