Fairchance, PA

Fairchance sits at the western base of Chestnut Ridge in Fayette County, with the Mon–Fayette Expressway just west of town. The borough reaches back to the late 1780s and was incorporated in 1889, but its name comes from a story about furnace operator Fidelus Oliphant. When a bank gave him a “fair chance” to finance his work, he repaid the loan and the name stuck. Today the place has the ordinary community pieces that make a borough legible: a park, youth sports, the Exchange Club, a junior council, and borough services close at hand. Fairchance carries its old furnace story into a very practical present.