Tiny town, big on businesses
The quaint Finleyville Borough Building is housed in the former First National Bank of Finleyville at 3515 Washington Ave.
The colorful and newly remodeled Hunting Lodge II offers homemade soups and lunch specials at 3529 Washington Ave. in Finleyville.
Nita Gajewski of West Mifflin decorates an antique piece of furniture at Kountry Kreations at 3517 Washington Ave. in Finleyville.
Finleyville’s Washington Avenue pictured in 1909
While Finleyville is the size of a postage stamp when compared to other boroughs in Washington County, the town is jam-packed with locally-owned businesses.
There are more than 60 businesses lining the streets of this town, which is only one square mile in size and completely surrounded by Union Township, says Michael Kutsek, the borough’s longtime mayor.
”It just boggles your mind that there are (that many) businesses here,” says the owner of Kountry Kreations, who just wanted to be identified as Julie.
Her customers come to the business a few doors down from the borough building to do decorative painting “on just about everything that does not move,” she says.
One customer was painting a rural, pastoral scene on an old handsaw to give a couple for a wedding gift there on an afternoon in late April. Another woman was adding color to a small, old piece of furniture.
This business is nestled among a bridal shop, florist, pizzeria and the Hunting Lodge II bar and restaurant, a place where locals come to discuss current events in the borough.
“This is town central,” says Karen Kolessar of New Eagle, who purchased the business last fall and completely remodeled the dining room in four days. “We have a nice older crowd here.”
This borough was named after John Finley, one of its early settlers. Finley’s brother-in-law, James Barclay, made one of the first attempts to settle the area in 1788 by taking ownership of a 405-acre tract of land he named Mount Pleasant. Barclay was a retired sea captain who established a tavern here that resulted in the town taking the name of Rouge Alley, a mispronunciation of the actual name of Row Galley. Finleyville later became a crossroads for local farmers who participated in the Whiskey Rebellion tax revolt that was quashed in 1794.
“We have a good history down here,” Kutsek says. “It’s a tight little community.”
The town also was a crossroads for those who were moving goods in the early days between Pittsburgh, Brownsville and Uniontown.
“It’s a tight little community,” Kutsek said about the town with five churches.
With a population of about 450 people, the borough doesn’t experience many crimes, he says.
The size of Finleyville is what local funeral home supervisor – and borough council president – Tim P. Kegel likes best about his hometown. “I like the small-town atmosphere,” he says.