Editing Sharon, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
[[File:Buhl Mansion (14684212239).jpg|thumb|left|[[Frank H. Buhl Mansion]]]]
The Sharon area was first settled in 1795. It was incorporated as a [[borough (Pennsylvania)|borough]] on October 6, 1841, and incorporated as a city on December 17, 1918. The city operated under the Pennsylvania third-class city code until 2008, at which point it adopted a home rule charter under which the elected position of mayor was replaced with a hired city manager and financial officer.

The founding families of Sharon first settled on a flat plain bordering the [[Shenango River]], between two hills on the southwestern edge of what is today Sharon's downtown business  district. According to local legend, the community received its name from a Bible-reading settler who likened the location to the [[Plain of Sharon]] in [[Israel]].

Initially a center of coal mining, Sharon's economy transitioned to iron and steelmaking and other heavy industry after the arrival of the [[Erie Extension Canal]] in the 1840s. Following extensive national [[deindustrialization]] of the 1970s and 1980s, the city's economy diversified and is now based primarily on light industry, education, health care, and social services.

Prior to Prohibition in 1919, Sharon was home to a large commercial beer brewery, Union Brewing Co., which was forced to close its doors like many U.S. breweries of the era. During World War II the Westinghouse Electric Corporation at Sharon produced 10,000 torpedoes for the US Navy.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1945-10-07 |title=10,000 of the Torpedoes Made |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1945/10/07/archives/10000-of-the-torpedoes-made.html |access-date=2023-08-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 2004, local politicians proposed the creation of the city of Shenango Valley, a new municipality consisting of Sharon as well as [[Hermitage, Pennsylvania|Hermitage]], [[Sharpsville, Pennsylvania|Sharpsville]], [[Farrell, Pennsylvania|Farrell]], and [[Wheatland, Pennsylvania|Wheatland]] with the issue being put on the ballot in the form of a referendum.<ref name="2004 merger">{{cite web |last1=Gwin |first1=Harold |title=Here are some answers to questions on consolidation in Shenango Valley |url=https://www.vindy.com/news/2004/oct/30/here-are-some-answers-to-questions-on/ |website=[[The Vindicator (Ohio newspaper)|The Vindicator]] |access-date=2 May 2024 |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20190702142509/https://www.vindy.com/news/2004/oct/30/here-are-some-answers-to-questions-on/ |archive-date=2019-07-02}}</ref> Then [[Governor of Pennsylvania]], [[Ed Rendell]] voiced support for the measure and would be joined by [[Kathleen McGinty]], Secretary of the [[Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection|Department of Environmental Protection]], and [[Dennis Yablonsky]], Secretary of the [[Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development|Department of Community and Economic Development]] with the trio touring the region to urge for voters to pass the motion.<ref name="2004 merger" /> The city would largely be an expansion of Hermitage, whose city government would be retained including the office of mayor and its nine-member city council.<ref name="2004 merger" /> The merger would have kept the various independent school districts intact.<ref name="2004 merger" /> The effort would ultimately be defeated, and via the ordinance, the issue of merger could not be brought up again until 2009.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shenango Valley City Proposed 2004 Creation |url=https://www.localgeohistory.pro/en/pa/event/shenango-valley-city-proposed-2004-creation/ |website=localgeohistory.pro |access-date=2 May 2024}}</ref>