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Pennsylvania Counties

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Pennsylvania Counties

There are sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of America. The city of Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, and governmental functions have been consolidated since 1854.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Allegheny County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Pittsburgh
Year Organized: 1788
Square Miles: 730

Court House:

436 Grant Street
County Courthouse
Pittsburgh, PA 15219-2424

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Named for the The Allegheny River, a principal tributary of the Ohio River; it is located in the Eastern United States. The Allegheny River joins with the Monongahela River to form the Ohio River at the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Created on September 24, 1788, from parts of Westmoreland and Washington Counties and named for the Allegheny River. General John Forbes named Pittsburgh, the county seat, in November 1758 in honor of William Pitt, a British statesman. It was incorporated as a borough on April 22, 1794 and as a city on March 18, 1816.

The conflict between the British and French over claims in this area was settled in 1758 when Gen. John Forbes and his British and American army forced the French to abandon Fort Duquesne, a post they had built in 1754. The British completed Fort Pitt in 1761. After the defeat of an Indian resurgence in 1763 and the end of a dispute for control with Virginia (1780), settlement swelled. This was an outfitting point for settlers who rafted down the Ohio River, and soon shipbuilding developed. A blast furnace erected by George Anshutz about 1792 began the long rise of the iron and steel industry. In 1845 a fire destroyed one-third of Pittsburgh, but in 1852 the Pennsylvania Railroad was opened to Philadelphia and in 1859 coke was first used in a blast furnace and cold rolling was invented. Pittsburgh was a major manufacturing center during the Civil War. Between 1874 and 1880 oil refineries, papermaking, and wood products industries were pushed to other locations because products that were made through high heat processes took over in Pittsburgh. From 1882 to 1901 the partnership of Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie achieved world leadership in steel. Violent labor strikes included the railroad strike of 1877, the Homestead Steel strike in 1892, and the SWOC 1936 strike. In 1901 Carnegie sold out to the new U. S. Steel Company. In 1920 the "value added by manufactures" figure for Pittsburgh's industry began to decline, but from 1939 to 1954 steel experienced a second period of grandeur. In 1946 the "Pittsburgh Renaissance" city revivals (I and II) were first conceived. From about 1970 to the present, an era of deindustrialization has prevailed. However, an increase of 15 percent in the county's figure for value added from manufactures between 1987 and 1992 suggests that the economy may have finally stabilized. The peak of Allegheny County's population was 1,628,587 in 1960; the peak for Pittsburgh was 676,806 in 1950—and it is now only 369,879. The county has also been a major bituminous producer, blessed with the magnificent Pittsburgh coal vein. In the last five years subsurface mining has almost ceased. Farms still cover 9.2 percent of the land, and Allegheny is the ninth ranked mushroom-producing county.

Geography

Allegheny County is known for the three major rivers that flow through it: the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River converge at Downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River. The Youghiogheny River flows into the Monongahela River at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, 10 miles (16 km) southeast. Despite its industrial growth, much of Allegheny County is covered with forests.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 745 square miles (1,929 km²); 730 square miles (1,891 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (38 km²) of it (1.95%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Butler County (north)
Armstrong County (tangent to the northeast)
Westmoreland County (east)
Washington County (southwest)
Beaver County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Allegheny	township
- Aspinwall	borough	Incorporated Area
- Avalon	borough	Incorporated Area
- Baldwin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bell Acres	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bellevue	borough	Incorporated Area
- Ben Avon	borough	Incorporated Area
- Ben Avon Heights	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bethel Park	borough	Incorporated Area
- Blawnox	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bloomfield	borough	Incorporated Area
- Brackenridge	borough	Incorporated Area
- Braddock	borough	Incorporated Area
- Braddock Hills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bradfordwoods	borough	Incorporated Area
- Brentwood	borough	Incorporated Area
- Bridgeville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Carnegie	borough	Incorporated Area
- Castle Shannon	borough	Incorporated Area
- Chalfant	borough	Incorporated Area
- Cheswick	borough	Incorporated Area
- Churchill	borough	Incorporated Area
- Clairton	city	Incorporated Area
- Clinton	township
- Collier	township
- Coraopolis	borough	Incorporated Area
- Crafton	borough	Incorporated Area
- Crescent	township
- Dormont	borough	Incorporated Area
- Dravosburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Duquesne	city	Incorporated Area
- East Deer	township
- East McKeesport	borough	Incorporated Area
- East Pittsburgh	borough	Incorporated Area
- Edgewood	borough	Incorporated Area
- Edgeworth	borough	Incorporated Area
- Elizabeth	borough	Incorporated Area
- Emsworth	borough	Incorporated Area
- Etna	borough	Incorporated Area
- Findlay	township
- Forest Hills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Forward	township
- Fox Chapel	borough	Incorporated Area
- Franklin Park	borough	Incorporated Area
- Glassport	borough	Incorporated Area
- Glenfield	borough	Incorporated Area
- Green Tree	borough	Incorporated Area
- Hampton	township
- Harmar	township
- Haysville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Homestead	borough	Incorporated Area
- Homewood	borough	Incorporated Area
- Ingram	borough	Incorporated Area
- Jefferson Hills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Kilbuck	township
- Leet	township
- Leetsdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Marshall	township
- McCandless	township
- McKees Rocks	borough	Incorporated Area
- McKeesport	city	Incorporated Area
- Millvale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Montour	township
- Moon	township
- Morgan	township
- Mount Lebanon	township
- Mount Oliver	borough	Incorporated Area
- Munhall	borough	Incorporated Area
- Municipality of Monroeville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Neville	township
- North Braddock	borough	Incorporated Area
- North Fayette	township
- North Versailles	township
- Oakdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Oakland	borough	Incorporated Area
- Oakmont	borough	Incorporated Area
- O'Hara	township
- Ohio	township
- Osborne	borough	Incorporated Area
- Penn Hills	township
- Pennsbury Village	borough	Incorporated Area
- Pine	township
- Pitcairn	borough	Incorporated Area
- Pittsburgh (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Pleasant Hills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Plum	borough	Incorporated Area
- Port Vue	borough	Incorporated Area
- Rankin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Reserve	township
- Ross	township
- Rosslyn Farms	borough	Incorporated Area
- Scott	township
- Sewickley	borough	Incorporated Area
- Sewickley Heights	borough	Incorporated Area
- Sewickley Hills	borough	Incorporated Area
- Shaler	township
- Sharpsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- South Fayette	township
- South Park	township
- South Versailles	township
- Springdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Swissvale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Tarentum	borough	Incorporated Area
- Thornburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Turtle Creek	borough	Incorporated Area
- Upper St. Clair	township
- Verona	borough	Incorporated Area
- Versailles	borough	Incorporated Area
- Wall	borough	Incorporated Area
- West Deer	township
- West Elizabeth	borough	Incorporated Area
- West Homestead	borough	Incorporated Area
- West Mifflin	borough	Incorporated Area
- West View	borough	Incorporated Area
- Whitaker	borough	Incorporated Area
- White Oak	borough	Incorporated Area
- Wilkins	township
- Wilkinsburg	borough	Incorporated Area
- Wilmerding	borough	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."