The fortunes of the Borough of Homewood have risen and fallen with the growth and decline of the railroads. Part of South Beaver Township in 1800, and passing into Big Beaver Township in 1802, the tract in which the present Borough lies was sold by William Grimshaw to Joseph M. Smith in 1831. This area slumbered until the construction of the Ohio and Pennsylvania RR through it in 1852. The junction of the Pittsburgh, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad with the Erie and Pittsburgh line was eventually located at the present Borough site. In 1859, Joseph M. Smith laid out a village here which reportedly took the name Homewood (or Homewood Junction) from one James Wood, who a year earlier had built an iron furnace along the Beaver River, about two miles from where the rail lines would meet.
Early settlers in Homewood were David Johnston, William Foster, Adam Garner, John C. Chapman, and Jonathan Grist. At the Junction itself, the Pennsylvania Railroad would at one time employ over 100 men in its maintenance department alone. The Homewood Stone Quarry was also an important local industry, and an ice house located at Homewood Reservoir employed 25 to 30 people.
In 1869, a small frame building was built to house the Homewood Methodist Episcopal Church; the Reverend J. W. Claybaugh was the first minister.
During the later 1800's and early 1900's, while railroads served as the nation's foremost means of transportation, Homewood flourished. It became a Borough on September 10, 1910, with Charles Hunter elected its first burgess. In 1911, a school was opened in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal Church building. By 1915, a new two- story brick school had been built. The Harmony Streetcar Line was built through the new Borough in 1914. It carried passengers to Pittsburgh, and, after a transfer in New Castle, to Youngstown, Ohio. (Remains of the streetcar line as well as the old stone quarry may be seen in the area behind present Conley's Motel on Route 18.)
As the fortunes of the railroads declined, local industries - which had served the railroads or had been served by them, closed out. Today, Homewood, rather than a busy railroad junction, is a quiet residential community, whose residents commute to work in other communities. Homewood is included in the Big Beaver Falls Area School District.