Efforts to incorporate Bowmanstown as a borough occurred as early as 1892. The village contained about 300 inhabitants in 1896 but the nearby New Jersey Zinc Company soon added to its growth. Bowmanstown was incorporated as a Borough on November 29, 1913 for the purpose of providing general local government services to residents of the community. Upon incorporation of Bowmanstown as a borough its boundaries encompassed lands measuring 0.75 square mile. The borough's assessed valuation in 1918 was $279,000.00. The population of 834 in 1920 remained relatively constant for decades. The Bowmanstown Borough Municipal Building (Borough Hall) is a converted school building that was constructed in 1903 to serve the youths of the community. In 1958, the Palmerton School District was established and combined several local schools in order to create a regional school thus making the Bowmanstown campus obsolete. In 1964, the Borough acquired the old brick school building and has been using it as offices ever since. The borough kept the building in its original condition.
The Bowmanstown Borough Authority was incorporated August 24, 1997 and was created for the purpose of owning and operating the Bowmanstown Public Water System. On February 11, 2002 the Authority began construction of its water system improvement project which included a new chlorine building, looping numerous water mains, installing new services, erection of a new 250,000 gallon Standpipe and a new liner to the one Reservoir. In 2009, the Authority replaced their two roofs at the Reservoirs with metal roofs. Ongoing water projects will continue to transpire throughout the years.