Prior to the Great Depression, coal mines and coke ovens made Scottdale the wealthiest community in Westmoreland County. Once part of a region that was known as the world's largest producer of metallurgical coke, the area's prosperity created a thriving business district on the road to Pittsburgh, lined Chestnut Street with elegant Victorian mansions, and provided a home for a baseball farm team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals. Immigrants from Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean joined earlier Scotch Irish and German settlers to create a rich cultural heritage. Around Scottdale and Everson celebrates this ethnic diversity. Pictured within are views of early homesteads, coke ovens, mills, and places where residents lived, shopped, worshiped, and played, including Lake Forest Park and the YMCA. Although recent economic growth shifted to nearby interstate highways, Scottdale and Everson occupy a strategic gateway to the Laurel Highlands, which promises to attract new immigrants preferring to live near open spaces and in neighborhoods without strangers.
Paul E. Eckman is a former resident of Everson, whose family history includes many years of public service to the community. Tom Zwierzelewski, raised in Alverton, is a longtime Scottdale resident. Zwierzelewski is president of the Scottdale Historical Society, whose members assisted with this publication.