Editing Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:DOWNTOWNMP24.jpg|thumb|left|Downtown Mount Pleasant in 2024]]
[[File:Miners at American Radiator Mine, Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Digital ID- (digital file from original neg.) fsa 8a00946 http- hdl.loc.gov loc.pnp fsa.8a00946.jpg|thumb|left|Miners at American Radiator Mine, Mount Pleasant, 1936]]
[[Image:Warden House Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Warden House (1886)<br />National Register of Historic Places]]
[[Image:Main Street Mount Pleasant Pa 2011.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Main Street]]
Mount Pleasant borough is located at what was originally the junction of two [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] paths. With the coming of Europeans, those two paths - now known as Pennsylvania Routes 31 (east/west) and 819 (north/south)- became key access roads to the western wilderness and more populated areas in the east. The crossroads attracted settlers who established businesses to serve travelers passing through.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Maruca |first1=Julia |title=10 Things to See in Mt. Pleasant Borough and Township |url=https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/westmoreland-250-10-things-to-see-in-the-mt-pleasant-area/ |access-date=11 October 2023 |publisher=Pittsburgh Tribune-Review |date=October 11, 2023}}</ref>

The year of Mount Pleasant's first non-Native American Indian resident is not known. The road pioneered by the [[Braddock Expedition|Braddock expedition]] passed through the western end of the future town in 1755, opening the area to settlement. One source states that at the time of the [[American Revolutionary War]], there was a settlement of "not more than a half dozen houses."<ref name="Boucher">{{cite book | last = Boucher | first = John N. | title = Old and New Westmoreland | publisher = American Historical Society | year = 1918 | location = New York, New York | pages = 485 | url = http://digital.library.pitt.edu/pittsburgh/ }}</ref>   In 1793 Michael Smith was licensed to operate an inn, which would have served traffic on Glades Road (sometimes spelled Glade Road), now [[Pennsylvania Route 31|Route 31]].<ref name="Boucher"/> In 1797, Nathaniel Marshall sold land to Andrew McCready, who laid out the design of the town.<ref name="Boucher"/>

[[Jacob's Creek Bridge]], the first iron-chain suspension bridge built in the United States, was erected south of the town in 1801. It was demolished in 1833.

Unfortunately, no pre-1800 structures remain within the borough limits. The borough's three oldest existing buildings all date from approximately 1812: The ''Shupe House'' at 201 Main Street, ''Hitchman House'' at 355 Main Street, and the ''Rupert Building'' at 642-644 Main Street.<ref name="MtPleasant-NRHP">{{cite web|url=http://www.arch.state.pa.us/ |title=National Register of Historical Places – Mount Pleasant Historic District |access-date=2008-05-10 |format=PDF |work=ARCH: Pennsylvania's Historic Architecture & Archeology |publisher=Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission }}</ref>

Mount Pleasant became a borough on February 7, 1828.

Glass manufacturing was a foundation of the local economy, with Bryce Brothers commencing operations in 1850, and L. E. Smith Glass<ref>[http://www.lesmithglass.com/ L. E. Smith Glass]</ref> in 1907.  The invention of the [[Bessemer process]] of steelmaking in 1859, which required [[coke (fuel)]], had a dramatic impact on the region.<ref name="MtPleasant-NRHP"/> The town prospered as coal deposits were developed, from which coke was made. However, the lives of coal miners in the outlying "patch towns" (company-owned mining towns) were arduous, and labor-management disputes became frequent. The strike in Morewood, west of Mount Pleasant borough, was the most violent of the area's strikes, in which [[Morewood massacre|nine miners were killed by sheriff's deputies]] on April 3, 1891.<ref name="morewood-oldminer">{{cite web |url=http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/morewood2.html |title=Massacre at Morewood Mine & Coke Works, (Coal Miners Strike of 1891) |access-date=2008-05-10 |last=Washlaski |first=Raymond A. |author2=Ryan P. Washlaski |author3=Peter E. Starry Jr |date=2006-11-12 |work=Virtual Museum of Coal Mining in Western Pennsylvania |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707140744/http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/morewood2.html |archive-date=2011-07-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="morewood-pahistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.explorepahistory.com/ |title=Morewood Massacre |access-date=2008-05-10 |work=ExplorePAhistory.com |publisher=WITF, Inc. ([[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]]) and [[Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission]]}}</ref>

Mount Pleasant was disadvantaged when the main lines of the railroads bypassed the community in the 1850s. The community's isolation lessened in 1871 with the opening of the ''Mount Pleasant and Broadford Railroad'', later part of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]. In addition, a branch line of the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] connected the borough to Scottdale, and [[West Penn Railways]] (an [[interurban]] trolley) served Mount Pleasant from 1906 to 1952.<ref>{{cite book | title = West Penn Railways | publisher = Pennsylvania Railway Museum Association, Inc. | year = 1973 | location = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania }}</ref>

The Borough of Mount Pleasant has three listings on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]: the [[Samuel Warden House]] (1886) at 200 South Church Street, the demolished [[Mount Pleasant Armory]], and the [[Mount Pleasant Historic District (Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania)|Mount Pleasant Historic District]], which encompasses the oldest parts of the borough.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>