Our Town: Elizabeth
By Brad Hundt
By Brad Hundt
A marker notes the location of Elizabeth’s first graveyard, which contains the remains of Elizabeth Mackay Bayard, for whom Elizabeth was named. Her grave is now unmarked.
By Brad Hundt
By Brad Hundt
The history and industry of Elizabeth is depicted in renderings on the side of a building in downtown Elizabeth.
Nestled on the eastern bank of the Monongahela River in the southern part of Allegheny County, Elizabeth is one of the many municipalities in the region that has seen better days, but could well have better days ahead of it.
One of the earliest communities to be formed in the Pittsburgh region, it was established in 1787 and named for Elizabeth Mackay Bayard, one of the founders of the town. Her co-founders were her husband, Col. Stephen Bayard, who served in the Revolutionary War, and her brother, Samuel Mackay. According to the March 1935 issue of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Stephen Bayard “had been so impressed with the Western Pennsylvania region that at the end of the war he decided to cast his lot there.”
By Brad Hundt
By Brad Hundt
Tables and chairs have been set up outside Rockwell’s Red Lion Restaurant in downtown Elizabeth.
It continued, “In this decision he was not alone; for at about the same time, a number of other Army officers were lured to settle in Pittsburgh by the apparent opportunities of the western country. Their arrival brought a touch of refinement to the little settlement at the junction of the rivers, theretofore made up largely of such rough frontiersmen as the average trappers, traders and boatmen of the time. Several families whose representatives became leaders in the community in the years following had their beginnings thus, and the Bayard family was one of them.”
Located 15 miles upstream from downtown Pittsburgh, Elizabeth’s earliest industries were ship and steamboat building. The flat-bottomed keelboat that was used in the exploration of the western United States by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark from 1804 to 1806 was said to have been made in Elizabeth, though that point is disputed. Other industries, like glassmaking and coal, followed as the Industrial Revolution gathered force.
And, of course, like scores of other communities in the Mon Valley and elsewhere in the Rust Belt, Elizabeth saw its fortunes swoon when industry decamped elsewhere. But Elizabeth, with a population of about 1,200 residents, is trying to refashion itself as a spot with small-town allure that is close to both the city and the country.
“Elizabeth is a gateway community,” says its mayor, Barry Boucher. Along with being in Pittsburgh’s orbit, and just a handful of miles from the Washington County communities of New Eagle and Monongahela, it’s also within the vicinity of Belle Vernon, the Laurel Highlands and the Youghiogheny River Lake, Boucher points out.
“It’s a little simpler to live here,” he adds.
By Brad Hundt
By Brad Hundt
The Grand Theatre, located in Elizabeth, opened in 1902. It closed in the 1970s, but was reopened in the 1970s as a performing arts center.
Located off Route 51 in the Elizabeth Forward School District, Elizabeth has chain stores like Rite Aid and Dollar General within its boundaries, but it also has some boutique shops and mom-and-pop restaurants in its downtown. The downtown is anchored by the Grand Theatre, a former moviehouse built in 1902 and shuttered in the 1970s. It was purchased by current owner Lori Kolodziej around the turn of the century for $40,000 and refurbished. It’s now a performing arts center, and it screens the occasional classic film.
Also the executive director of the Mon River Arts organization, Kolodziej organizes a series of summer concerts that take place on Thursdays on Plum Street in Elizabeth.
“My goal is to make Elizabeth a destination,” Kolodziej says.
And what makes Elizabeth a worthwhile place to visit, or even live?
“It’s a quality-of-life issue,” Kolodziej says. “It has a good community feel. It’s very quaint.”