Celebrate Rostraver Township’s 250 years with Mon Valley Night Out
Observer-Reporter file photo
Rostraver Township Municipal Building
Observer-Reporter file photo
This file photo shows the one-room stone Concord School dating to 1830 along Municipal Drive in Rostraver Township.
Observer-Reporter file photo
This file photo shows Fells United Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Fellsburg area of Rostraver Township. The church is home to Rostraver Area Historical Society.
Observer-Reporter file photo
Historic Fells Church in Rostraver Township
Observer-Reporter
The Rostraver Ice Garden was renamed earlier this year to the cfsbank Event Center.
If you’re going to go, go big.
That is exactly what Rostraver Township is doing with its 250th-anniversary celebration.
The 250th-year anniversary celebration – dubbed Mon Valley Night Out – will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 1, at John Divirgilio Complex, near the township municipal building.
The event will be held in conjunction with the national Night Out, featuring a concert, fireworks, raffle baskets, kids’ prizes and a 50-50 sale.
National Night Out is a community-police awareness-raising event nationwide, held on the first Tuesday of August.
Rostraver enjoyed a successful National Night Out in 2022, and John Lorenzo, a township commissioner, said combining the event to maximize the crowd and use of facilities and resources is important.
“We spent five months putting things together,” Lorenzo said. “We thought coordinating events, pairing the 250th celebration with the Mon Valley Night Out, just made sense. The night out was so successful last year. We just felt we might as well throw the anniversary celebration right in there with it.”
“The concert and the fireworks are a big thing for the 250th anniversary, and they will follow the National Night Out.”
He added that August Fest held at Cedar Creek Park just a few days later, was also a factor in combining celebrations.
Lorenzo said the dual celebration will feature “different booths and setups.” Participants will be issued maps and stamps and be entered in a prize drawing, which last year included iPads and bicycles.
“Then, at the end, there will be fireworks,” he added. “There will be a lot of attractions, games and community interaction with police, fire and first responders.”
Lorenzo said Vinosky Winery is providing the entertainment and that, with the fireworks, the celebration could last until 11 p.m.
Rostraver became one of the original townships when Westmoreland County was organized in April 1773.
According to various documented materials, the township’s size was decreased to its present 36 square miles when Fayette and Allegheny counties were formed.
History shows that a bevy of initial or early settlers have descendants who still live in or in the vicinity of Rostraver. Among those are descendants of Matthew Beazell, who laid out the plans for Webster in 1833, and Benjamin Fell, for whom Fellsburg was named.
Rostraver Township is in the southwestern corner of Westmoreland County and is the location of the Household No.1 site, which a Monongahela village once occupied. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The township’s name has been traced back to Rostrevor – a seaside community in County Down, now in Northern Ireland. It is known that some of the early settlers, such as the McClains, came from County Down, so it is surmised that they probably named their new community out of affection for the native village and spelled it phonetically as Rostraver.
“Last year, we estimated that we had close to 2,000 people,” said Sgt. Scott Sokol, a 26-year member of the Rostraver police force. “Obviously, we’re hoping the event grows. Our supporters and vendors, last year, made comments they could not believe what the turnout was for an inaugural event. Walt Vinoski said that meant (this) year’s fireworks ‘gonna be bigger and better.'”
“What makes Night Out so special is the children. The fact that we get to have the children in the communities interact with the first responders. They always seem to interact with them in stressful times. This way, they can come together under a positive atmosphere. We love our first responders; however, we need our children to be our future first responders, and this event can build relationships within the communities.”