The two waterways defined much of the village's early history. In 1825, the Schuylkill Navigation Company completed the Schuylkill Canal and Brower's Locks at Oaks, and the system was heavily traveled. The village of Oaks was named after the canal's designer, Thomas Oakes (engineer). Later in the nineteenth century, the railroad largely supplanted the role of the canal. The Perkiomen Railroad built the Oaks station in 1868. The Philadelphia & Reading, sometimes referred to as the Reading Railroad merged the short line as its Perkiomen Branch. Oaks village cropped up around the station.
Today, the village of Oaks is set in dense suburbs. Many of its original structures remain, including the general store, the locktender's house, and many historic homes. Although the tracks are no longer in service in the center of Oaks, a station built in 1918 to replace the original is still located today at the intersection of Egypt Rd. and Station Ave. (the former tracks of the Perkiomen Railroad/Philadelphia & Reading/Reading Co.).
