Eighty Four, Pennsylvania

Eighty Four is a small unincorporated community mostly within Somerset Township in Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies approximately 25 miles southwest of Pittsburgh and is in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.

Eighty Four is accessible via Pennsylvania Route 519 and Route 136 and interstates 79 and 70. The closest international airport is the Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township.

Origin of name

There is some dispute amongst local historians regarding the origin of the name of the community. However, the most plausible explanation seems to be that Eighty Four was given its name to commemorate the election of Grover Cleveland as President of the United States in 1884. The state historical marker sign near the post office relates this theory.

Other origin stories include:

*The village was located 80 degrees and 4 minutes west longitude.

*Eighty Four, PA was mail drop #84 on the Railway Mail Service.

*The village is located on the 84th tract of land carved out by the Northwest Ordinance.

*There was confusion with the mail for Smithfield A (Eighty Four) and Smithfield B. Since mail for A was getting mixed up with mail for stop B, to end the confusion the town was named after the year 1884. This was a story that surfaced during the centennial 1984.

*General David "Crazy Legs" Hamilton and his outfit of 84 soldiers held off an attack of outlaws on December 30th of 1869 at the present day location of the town.

2000 census information

* Postal ZIP code: 15330
* Telephone area code: 724
* County Name: Washington
* Coordinates: coord|40.1819|N|80.133|W|region:US_type:city(5012)
* Elevation: 1049
* Population: 5012 [Citation
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first =
title = 15330 Fact Sheet - American Fact Finder
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accessdate = 2007-08-08]

Features

Eighty-four is home to three golf courses and two hotels as well as the Wylandville Elementary School (with kindergarten and grades one through four), a part of the Canon-McMillan School District. Wylandville has several relatively important alumni. One of these is Brian Kretz who is currently enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

* Location of the 84 Lumber Company's headquarters and home of the first 84 Lumber store.
* Location of the company Pittsburgh Embossing Services.
* Location of the company [http://www.ametekmetals.com/about/overview.cfm AMETEK Specialty Metals]

Multimedia

* [http://eighty-fourglyde.blogspot.com/2008/01/glyde-and-eighty-four.html Glyde & Eighty-Four] – A two-part Documentary about the towns Glyde and Eighty-four

ee also

* Ninety Six, South Carolina and Eighty Eight, Kentucky are other examples of towns with numerical names.

References