Koppel, PA

Koppel is a borough in northern Beaver County, Pennsylvania, built above the Beaver River around an industrial plant and company housing. Orenstein and Koppel purchased 558 acres in Big Beaver Township in 1906, built a manufacturing plant and rows of houses, and gave the new borough its name from Arthur Koppel. Koppel was incorporated in 1912, and the company donated land for a school and municipal buildings the following year.

The borough's industrial map changed several times. The Pressed Steel Car Company operated in Koppel from 1919 to 1937, while Babcock and Wilcox began construction of a steel-processing plant on the eastern edge in the late 1950s. The Pittsburgh, Harmony, Butler and New Castle Street Railway reached town in 1915, connecting Koppel with Beaver Falls and Ellwood City. Company housing, the former plant area, the Beaver River, and the old bridge still give the borough a clear physical story. Koppel is a Beaver County place shaped by German industrial capital, rail and streetcar links, steel work, and the houses that grew beside the factories.