Behind the Numbers
Westmoreland County, PA - 250th Anniversary Trafford Map Project
During a 2022 Westmoreland Heritage Partner meeting, the organizers were planning ways to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Westmoreland County and encouraged partner members to consider playing on the number "250" when thinking about activities in their organizations for the calendar year 2023.
At one of our Trafford Historical Society meetings, we started throwing ideas around, and one of our members, Tom Kelly, posed the question, "Could we identify the 250 oldest structures (homes or commercial buildings) currently standing within the Borough?" It seemed like a plausible challenge, so we started putting a plan together. At the start, we knew it would not be an exact number, and finding the age of the structures could be a challenge, but to date, we think we were able to identify at least 267 buildings in our goal of reaching 250.
Disclaimer: this number may have even changed as you read this post as we add or delete buildings based on community input. But honestly, getting this feedback is actually the better goal here. We want to engage more people to look into their local history and take some time to appreciate what our ancestors have accomplished in this County over the past 250 years. The history behind the businesses, the industry, and the stories coming from within these homes are worth commemorating.
Andrew Capets, 8/21/2023
The following resources were used to determine the number 267.
1. The parcels within the current boundary lines of Trafford Borough using the Westmoreland County GIS tool: www.wcgis.us
2. G.M. Hopkins Company Maps made available through Historic Pittsburgh via the University of Pittsburgh Library System: 1903 Trafford Plate 27; 1915 Trafford Plate 27; 1915 Trafford Plate 24; 1915 Trafford Plate 29
3. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps made available through Penn State University Libraries: 1909 Trafford; 1910 Trafford; 1925 Trafford
4. The "Google My Maps" tool below was organized by "layering" the data according to the various maps we used. Note the map legend for these titles:
8 = Pre-1904 Trafford Buildings still here in 2023
58 = Westinghouse Company Homes (red = home is gone)
6 = 1903 G.M. Hopkins (Green Still Here)
28 = 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
66 = 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
101 = 1915 G.M. Hopkins & Co
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267 Total
