Aliquippa

The City of Aliquippa is located in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, on the west bank of the Ohio River, approximately 18 miles downstream and northwest of the City of Pittsburgh. Aliquippa draws its name from the Indian Queen, Aliquippa, or "Big Hat."

The construction of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad along the Ohio River in 1877 significantly influenced the growth of the Village of Woodlawn, situated on Logstown Run. Woodlawn was incorporated as a borough in 1893.

In 1898, agents for the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company purchased property in and about Woodlawn and what is now West Aliquippa. By 1917, J&L; had four blast furnaces in operation as part of a mill complex that eventually extended for five miles along the Ohio River.

Woodlawn and Aliquippa merged in 1928 to become the Borough of Aliquippa. At the height of the steel industry in Aliquippa around the Second World War, as many as 9,000 people were employed at J&L; Steel and Aliquippa had a population of 27,000.

In recent decades, the City has suffered the decline of many river bottom communities, due to the collapse of the steel industry and the out-migration of traditional downtown commercial establishments. In 1987, the Borough of Aliquippa was rechartered as a Third Class City under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and declared a distressed community. The 2000 census shows a continued population decline, with a count of 11,734.

Once the most prosperous and most populated community in Beaver County, Aliquippa now struggles to create a new image in recognition of a new era and in keeping with its vibrant past.