What fictional Pennsylvania town is Pencey Preparatory Academy in?

Pencey Preparatory Academy is in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Agerstown.

Holden Caulfield begins his account after leaving Pencey Prep, an elite boarding school that he describes with intense skepticism. Agerstown is presented as the Pennsylvania setting for the school and for the bus journey Holden takes before returning to New York. The town is fictional rather than a real Pennsylvania municipality.

Pencey’s setting establishes the contrast between Holden’s immediate environment and the Manhattan locations that dominate the rest of the novel. He sees the school’s claims about producing “splendid, clear-thinking young men” as part of the hypocrisy he calls “phoniness.” His expulsion and departure from Pencey launch the central journey of the story.

Agerstown is easy to confuse with the novel’s real-world locations, especially New York City, where Holden spends most of the narrative. It is also distinct from possible real-life inspirations for Pencey, including schools Salinger may have known; those influences do not make Agerstown itself real.