5 Town is close-knit and progressive
Holly Tonini
Roscoe is one of the five communities that will be celebrated as part of the inaugural 5-Town Fall Festival.
Elco, PA
Stockdale Volunteer Fire Co. Sign along 88 in Stockdale
To a casual observer, a string of small boroughs hugging the Monongahela River would appear to be small-town America by definition, where time seems to stand still.
But nothing could be further from the truth because the governments in Dunlevy, Allenport, Stockdale, Roscoe and Elco have a proven track record as being among the most progressive in Pennsylvania.
The boroughs, Dunlevy aside, became the first in Washington County and the second in the state to regionalize services to save taxpayer money, starting with the police department in 1990, says Roscoe Mayor Tom Wilkinson. Dunlevy is patrolled, though, by the regional police force.
“Everybody looks to Roscoe as a leader,” Wilkinson says, as mayor of the largest borough in the region otherwise known as 5 Town.
Holly Tonini
A sign welcomes visitors to a recreational park in Roscoe that serves the 5 Town area
The nickname stuck after the towns developed a recreational area named 5 Town Park in the 1960s, and the municipalities since have regionalized street and fire department services.
The story of these towns began when the area was known as Allen Township before the boroughs incorporated around small coal mines, with Roscoe having been founded in 1869. The neighboring municipality of Long Branch, which is not in 5 Town, also was once part of Allen Township, says Mon Valley historian Terry Necciai.
The close-knit communities have small populations, with Roscoe’s estimated at 789 people, and residents who keep close watch on their neighbors.
“It’s so quiet,” Wilkinson says. “If a drug dealer moves into our area and there is activity in and out of a house, it sticks out like a sore thumb. And that’s how we catch them. Our people take pride in watching out for their neighbors.”
These towns can be found in Washington County alongside the two-lane Route 88 south of Charleroi. The area is among few places in the Mon Valley where the railroad tracks are set back, giving property owners unspoiled views of the river. Boaters over the years have purchased small houses on riverfront property, torn them down and rebuilt in their place spacious, flood-proofed houses with boat docks.
“It’s a big sweep of the river,” Necciai says.
Dunlevy stands out for having a post-World War II development of tidy, well-kept brick houses, the Highway Appliance store and the White Barn Supper Club and its delicious homemade pierogies and raviolis.
Allenport is home to Mon River Industrial Park, a repurposed former steel mill three miles south of Interstate 70.
Stockdale is known for its fire department, with one of the largest event centers in the Mid-Mon Valley where it hosts weddings, bingos and oldies dances.
Roscoe, which once had its own newspaper, is home to a historic house that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad.
Holly Tonini
Latta House. Mt. Tabor Road; Roscoe
The Latta Stone House was built in 1803 by Allen Stockdale, and it was once referred to as the “most perfect Virginia-style mansion” in the area in 1837 by the Washington Observer.
Elco, which is at the southern edge of 5 Town, takes pride in its community park. It’s situated at the base of a steep hill that leads to the Mon-Fayette Expressway or California Borough.
It might come as a surprise to some that Dunlevy was once home to many immigrants from the Tuscany region of Italy and that they had an important soccer team at the Garibaldi Club, Necciai says.
“Soccer, it was big among the mining towns,” he says.
Wilkinson says it might be a good idea to consider more ways to merge services in 5 Town, where three Halloween parades were held on the same day at different times.
He tirelessly serves the communities as chief of a merged fire department and chairman of the board that oversees the Roscoe, Elco, Stockdale and Allenport Regional police department.
It also might be worth reincorporating the small towns as Allen Township. “I’d like to see it get back to that,” Wilkinson says.