Story of Delmont Borough has been 200 years in the making

Patrick Varine
Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 9:00 p.m. | Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 9:00 p.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT Z. YALEY

The Greensburg-Kittanning Pike, now Delmont’s Greensburg Street, was a dirt road prior to 1920. The first building on the left is the Delmont Methodist Church, which burned in 1898. It was situated across the road at an angle from Delmont School.

Patrick Varine | Murrysville Star

Shortly after taking office, Delmont Mayor Alyce Urban found several volumes of minutes, above, from the area's earliest governing bodies, dated between 1820 and 1826, along with photographs from the 1950s and '60s.

BOB CUPP/FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW

This 1913 photo from the year before the 100th anniversary of Delmont’s fouding, provides a bird's eye view of the borough. Taken from a hill in the southwest part of town, it shows the flour mill to the left and the Lutheran Church in the distance to the right.

Salem Crossroads Apothecary — Salem Crossroads Daycare — Christmas in Salem Crossroads — “Salem Crossroads” is all over Delmont, and with good reason.

Two days before Christmas — precisely two centuries ago in 1814 — Thomas Wilson divided land from his father's estate into 48 lots that were auctioned off to form what was known as “Salem Crossroads.”

The history of the area dates all the way back to Thomas' father, William Wilson, who was given 300 acres of land in 1784 that he dubbed “New Salem.”

The borough marked its 175th anniversary in 2008, based on the year it officially was incorporated, 1833. But in terms of modern-day Delmont, last week could be considered the borough's de facto 200th anniversary.

“I would agree wholeheartedly (that the borough just turned 200),” said author and historian Bob Cupp of North Huntingdon, who grew up in Delmont and wrote “A Valley in the Hills: Delmont, PA 1833-2008” as part of the 175th-anniversary celebration. “The confusion has always been that it wasn't incorporated until 1833.”

But even then, it still wasn't Delmont yet.

The area was incorporated as “New Salem Borough,” although the mailing address remained “Salem Crossroads” until 1871, when the town postmaster changed it to today's “Delmont.”

In fact, the community and post office had two different names all the way up until 1967, when residents voted to officially change the borough's name to Delmont.

According to information submitted to the National Register of Historic Places by the Salem Crossroads Historical Restoration Society in the mid-1970s — a period when the society was developing a plan to restore several landmarks from the Salem Crossroads days — the borough was located along the stagecoach route between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and developed around a watering trough installed in the early 1800s.

Stagecoach passengers spent many a night in the Central Hotel before getting back on the road.

The borough's days as a stagecoach stop were numbered with the advent of the American railroad system. By 1870, stagecoaches were few and far between.

“Salem Crossroads” was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

While the historical restoration society's plans did not come to fruition, there still is plenty of history on display in Delmont, according to Mayor Alyce Urban.

“We're very fortunate to have Salem Antiquities, which I believe is located in one of the borough's older buildings,” she said. “They go to the old log cabin (on East Pittsburgh Street) that's been restored and place a lot of artifacts, not just from Delmont but all over the area.”

Urban said she hopes borough residents keep an eye on the past while looking to the future.

“I would like to see more growth in Delmont. We're a town that has a lot of potential,” she said. “I'd like to see some development come in and make this the crossroads town it used to be.”

Patrick Varine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-871-2365 or pvarine@tribweb.com.

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