I only evaluated the core of Mount Pleasant as the residential streets towards the outskirts of the Borough start to become low density and often without sidewalk infrastructure. This is the area generally between Broad St to the north and Warden/Walnut Street to the south. I also didn’t include the eastern edge of Mt. Pleasant east of the railroad tracks.
Sparse settlement came to Mt. Pleasant around the American Revolutionary War. By the early 19th century Mt. Pleasant became a small village and grew into a borough in 1828. By the 1850s Mt. Pleasant had 500 residents. Glass manufacturing became the foundation of the local economy in the mid 19th century quickly followed by coke production thanks to the discovered of coal deposits in the area. Henry Frick, the town’s most famous resident, was born in a small village a couple miles outside of the Mt. Pleasant and spent many years working for his grandfather’s shop in the town (the building still exists today). At a young age Frick began buying up coal land in the area in the 1870s and it was here that Frick began to build his coke business empire. Fueled by growing coke production and coal mining, Mt Pleasant blossomed to 5K by 1900. The Borough peaked at 6K residents in 1960 but has since been gradually declining and sits at 4K residents today. Many other steel towns in Westmoreland County have lost much more of their peak population and Mt. Pleasant fortunately remains very intact.
Mt. Pleasant has a mediocre urban center with a relatively in-tact main street with a good amount of remaining shops (especially furniture and antiques). Much of the historic 19th century architecture remains including lots of early-mid 1800 buildings and the town is served well by several parks and a pretty walkable fabric. But this is essentially a country town that still finds itself in the larger Pittsburgh Metro. Mt. Pleasant is an aging City with few immigrants and limited cultural amenities. Unless Mt. Pleasant somehow sees a major influx of immigrants, I don’t see it altering its slow declining course.
Click here to view my Mount Pleasant Album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Good connectivity and gridded fabric.
* Best historic architecture is main street with some mid 19th century architecture mixed in but some good residential homes too.
* Good street connectivity.
* Overall a pretty safe community.
* Decent park amenities including the central Frick park and the more extensive Willow part on the edge of the core city. Also a couple cemeteries as well.
* Better retail amenities including a Shop n Save, and smaller locally owner grocer, couple drug stores, a couple antique and boutiques, a larger Levin Furniture Store, a couple florist, a public library, a couple dessert joints and gyms, post office, plenty of churches, and a hospital just located south of the core city.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* About 70% of the streets in this evaluation area have sidewalks but often very narrow and 1/2 of them have modern ADA curb cuts.
* 45 min drive to Dwtn Pitt (no transit access) and 20 min drive to Dwtn Greensburg, which is a small county seat job center. 35 minute transit trip.
Not much urban in-fill other than some autocentric crud.
* No bike infrastructure to speak of.
* Very low urban density
* Decent number of families but a very aging population. Median age is 52.
* Only the elementary school is located in the City core. High school is on the outskirts of town.
* Cultural amenities limited to a handful of restaurants & bars, a couple cafes, the Helltown Brewery, and a couple of historic homes & sites.
* Housing is very affordable but not a ton of variety. Larger 4 & 5 bedrooms top out at around 300K.
* Rental options (at least listed) are very limited as well but very affordable.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 