Incorporated in 1885 as a town and incorporated as a city in 1915 by an Act of the Legislature. Named for a Baltimore surveyor named Penn, who made the first town plat. Location of "The Old Stone House", built about 1810, a well known tavern in the stage coach days.
The city owns a 374-acre City Park which has a 12-acre lake (Tracy) and a 10-acre reservoir.
The town has a community-built and owned gymnasium, the C.R. "Pop" Sullivan municipal park which features a lighted outdoor basketball court, Myles Stadium with a 1/4-mile paved walking track and two fields for softball and Little League, tennis courts and a children's play area, a library, weekly newspaper, an osteopath and a medical clinic housing a physician and dentist, an industrial park housing Simonton Windows (manufacturers of vinyl windows).
Population, 1,199; elevations, 861 feet; volunteer fire department; elections held every two years on the second Tuesday in June; officials take office July first.