Perryopolis, PA

Perryopolis was laid out around Washington Diamond, with Liberty and Independence streets crossing at the center. The town’s land history reaches back to George Washington, who owned part of the property and later had a gristmill built nearby along the Youghiogheny River. The borough’s charter was signed in 1814, and the name honors Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s victory on Lake Erie. For a place that began with a few houses, a mill, and a distillery, the later coal-and-coke era left a much larger mark: Perry Township once had 999 coke ovens. The borough itself was incorporated in 1953, after Mary Fuller Frazier’s bequest helped reshape local civic and educational work.