Jump to content
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
Main page
Recent changes
Random page
Help about MediaWiki
Special pages
Niidae Wiki
Search
Search
Appearance
Create account
Log in
Personal tools
Create account
Log in
Pages for logged out editors
learn more
Contributions
Talk
Editing
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
(section)
Page
Discussion
English
Read
Edit
View history
Tools
Tools
move to sidebar
hide
Actions
Read
Edit
View history
General
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Appearance
move to sidebar
hide
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
== History== [[File:Pennsylvania - Glassport through Greensburg - NARA - 68148286 (cropped).jpg|250px|thumb|left|Greensburg in 1930]] After the end of the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], an inn was built along a wagon trail that stretched from [[Philadelphia]] west over the [[Appalachian Mountains]] to [[Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)|Fort Pitt]], now the city of [[Pittsburgh]]. A tiny settlement known as Newtown grew around the inn, which is today the center of Greensburg's Business District at the intersection of Pittsburgh and Main Streets. At Pittsburgh, the wagon trail became [[Penn Avenue]]. [[Hannastown, Pennsylvania|Hannastown]] was the original Westmoreland County seat. According to historian John Boucher, after Hannastown was attacked and burned by "Indians and Tories" in 1782,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boucher |first1=John Newton |title=History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania |date=1906 |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quEKAAAAYAAJ&q=ruffs%20dale |access-date=25 June 2022}}</ref> efforts began to relocate the county seat. On December 10, 1785, county officials contracted with Christopher Truby and William Jack to purchase two acres of Newtown land to erect public buildings. Ludwick Otterman later subscribed to the agreement. Boucher, therefore, designates December 10, 1785, as the date Newtown became the [[Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania|Westmoreland County]] seat.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boucher |title= op.cit.|page=183}}</ref> The first courthouse and jail were a single building built of logs and heavy planks. The jail portion had a heavy stone wall that extended some distance above the ground, "perhaps to keep prisoners from cutting their way out".<ref>{{cite book |title=Boucher op. cit. p. 192}}</ref> Court was first held in this structure on January 7, 1787.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boucher |title= op.cit.|page=194}}</ref> The [[Westmoreland County Courthouse]], in its various incarnations, has stood on this site ever since. {{Citation needed|date=December 2018}} The area surrounding the courthouse became Greensburg ("Greenesburgh", as some documents referred to it at the time). It was named for [[American Revolutionary War]] General [[Nathanael Greene]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n143 144]}}</ref> Greensburg was formally incorporated as a borough on February 9, 1799, making it the first borough in the county.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wendling |first1=Gerald P. |title=The Birth of Westmoreland County |date=January 1, 1992 |publisher=Tax Office, Westmoreland County |pages=Section 6, Exhibit 25 |url=https://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/2401/Historic-Maps-Resources}}</ref> In the early 19th century, Greensburg had very little population growth (see population data table in this article). After 1850, Greensburg became a growing county seat with inns and small businesses. A railroad stop and the discovery of large areas of soft coal nearby made it the center of a vigorous [[mining industry]] in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Several coal mines (Greensburg/Keystone Nos. 1 and 2, Hawksworth, and Radebaugh) were opened in and around Greensburg during this period with nearly all of the coal being shipped by rail. [[Seton Hill University|Seton Hill College]], formerly St. Joseph's Academy, became a four-year women's institution in 1918. Greensburg became a City of the Third Class on January 2, 1928. After World War II, more residential areas were developed in various sections of town. Greensburg's cultural status grew as the Westmoreland County Museum of Art opened in 1959 and the [[University of Pittsburgh]] founded the branch campus, the [[University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg]], in 1963, now located in [[Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania|Hempfield Township]]. The opening of [[Greengate Mall]] and [[Westmoreland Mall]] in 1965 and 1977, respectively, marked a new era for retail shopping in the area but negatively impacted retail businesses in Downtown Greensburg's shopping district. Changes in local shopping habits had already taken their toll by the late 1970s when Troutman's Department Store closed. By the mid-1990s, city officials shifted their revitalization plans on the cultural aspects of Downtown Greensburg, such as the restorations of the Palace Theater and the historic Train Station, as well as a [[performing arts]] center for [[Seton Hill University]]. Also, in July 2009, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, the largest medical school in the country, opened a satellite campus at Seton Hill University. Now, over 200 students study at LECOM at Seton Hill every year. As part of this ongoing transition, an expansion of the [[Westmoreland Museum of American Art]] was completed in 2015. [[Image:greensburg-pennsylvania-courthouse.jpg|thumb|Westmoreland County Courthouse]] [[File:General Greene Hotel Greensburg Pennsylvania.jpg|thumb|Hotel Rappe, later Greensburger Hotel, later General Greene Hotel, at 24 West Otterman Street in 1983. Built in 1903, since demolished.]] The city is home to the [[Diocese of Greensburg]].
Summary:
Please note that all contributions to Niidae Wiki may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see
Encyclopedia:Copyrights
for details).
Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Search
Search
Editing
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
(section)
Add topic