AVONMORE, PENNSYLVANIA

'Avonmore' is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 820 at the 2000 census.

Contents

Geography

Demographics

Facts

Avonmore Stories and Legends

External links

Geography

Avonmore is located at (40.527750, -79.466186).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 4.2 km² (1.6 mi²). 3.9 km² (1.5 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (6.83%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 820 people, 344 households, and 234 families residing in the borough. The population density was 211.1/km² (547.9/mi²). There were 376 housing units at an average density of 96.8/km² (251.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough was 98.17% White, 1.22% African American, 0.37% Asian, 0.12% from other races, and 0.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.37% of the population.
There were 344 households out of which 26.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.4% were married couples living together, 8.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.7% were non-families. 30.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.89.
In the borough the population was spread out with 21.6% under the age of 18, 5.1% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 23.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 83.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.6 males.
The median income for a household in the borough was $30,156, and the median income for a family was $39,583. Males had a median income of $34,286 versus $22,361 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $18,712. About 7.7% of families and 9.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.2% of those under age 18 and 6.8% of those age 65 or over.

Facts

Avonmore is a borough municipality and is governed by a mayor and a town council. Aileen Reid is currently holding the mayoral position and was elected as a write in candidate. The horizontal streets (Avenues) in Avonmore are named after the counties in Western Pennsylvania (with the exception of Railroad Avenue)and Westmoreland Avenue also acts as Pennsylvania Route 156. The vertical streets are numbered from 1st street to 8th street. The alley ways are also named after various tree species like Oak and Cherry. Avonmore has very few businesses due to the small size of the town. Avonmore is nestled in a small valley with the Kiskiminetas River running along its outskirts. Back in the day, Avonmore thrived with its own elementary school and high school and an abundance of small businesses including a bowling alley and movie theater. Now, the elementary school no longer exists and the high school serves as the municipal building for the borough. Avonmore has two baseball facilities at opposite ends of the town. These fields are the home to Bell-Avon little league organization's baseball and softball teams. Avonmore also has a whole bunch of bars and churches, including the ritzy "Italian Club". As far as heritage, Avonmore is dominated by those of Polish descent and Italian descent, although the town was originally founded by Irish & German immigrants in the early 1800s. The town was incorporated as a borough in 1893 from a portion of nearby Bell Township.

Avonmore Stories and Legends

The woods by the upper ball fields are considered to be haunted by locals due to an abandoned graveyard in those woods. The graveyard is at the site of a church that was to be built there in the early 1800s. Disagreement among the church members led them to construct the chuch building a few miles away in Bell Township. Reports of seeing white blurs and other abnormalities have been claimed by residents of the town.
There have also been claims that an old man lives under the bridge that leads into Avonmore. Fishermen and other individuals have claimed to have seen him.
When the old elementary school still stood, many kids of the town believed that it was haunted. It was used as a storage building and the halloween decorations were stored in this building in front of one of the windows. The kids could see them and mistaked them to be real. In order to find out if it really was haunted or not, many of the neighborhood children decided to karate kick in the basement door and explore the building with flashlights. They made their way over antique urinals and sinks to the basement stairs and climbed their way up into the main part of the building. It was very messy and there were outdated books and old desks everywhere along with municipal items. One of the floors was caved in and the building appeared to be nothing more than an old abandoned building. Since that day, the haunted rumor became busted and fear of the building lived on no more.
Since Avonmore is such a small town, the kids of the town must use creativity in order to overcome boredom. It is completely normal to see the neighborhood children playing sandlot baseball and football in the summer. Many also play roller hockey at the basketball courts as well as basketball. There also is an old pond on the Fifth Street extension that is known as the pump station. It is very muddy and dirty.

External links