Windber, PA

Windber is a Somerset County borough about three miles south of Johnstown, built around the Berwind-White coal company in 1897. The 2020 census counted 3,930 residents. Charles and Edward Julius Berwind laid it out as a company town, and the name simply flips the syllables of Berwind. Houses, churches, banks, schools, company stores, theaters, and recreation areas were planned together, giving Windber a town grid with a very specific industrial origin. The borough's streets still make that original plan easy to see on foot.

The Windber Historic District spreads across Windber, Paint Borough, and Scalp Level, preserving hundreds of company-era buildings and workers' homes. Coal shaped the first economy, with lumbering and firebrick adding other industrial layers. Windber Area School District remains part of the local map, while Johnstown supplies the nearby regional connection. Windber's local scoop is a coal town whose original design still tells the story: a company built the streets, then generations of families made them their own.