Sharon is a city in
Mercer County,
Pennsylvania, in the
United States, 75 miles (121 km) northwest of
Pittsburgh.
Sharon was settled in
1795, incorporated as a
borough on
October 6,
1841, and incorporated as a city on
December 17,
1918. The city currently operates under the PA
third-class city charter with a mayor-council form
of government; however, it is transitioning to a
home-rule charter which will take effect in 2010.
History
The founding families of Sharon first settled on
the flat plain bordering the
Shenango River (this area is situated between
two hills and is the current location of Sharon's
downtown and the North and South flats business
districts). According to local legend, the community
probably received its name from a Bible-reading
settler who likened the location to the
Plain of Sharon in
Israel.
Due to its large coal deposits, Sharon was once
an industrial center, with rolling mills, boiler and
machine shops, furnaces, flour mills, ordnance
works, and manufactories of explosives, nails, horse
collars, spokes, chains, stoves, and lumber
products. Today, there is still some steel and
metalworking as well as other manufacturing, but the
city has experienced levels of deindustrialization;
despite the reclamation of several industrial sites
and investments from manufacturing businesses, most
of the city's job growth today is in the service
sector.
Geography
Sharon is located at
41°13′48″N,
80°29′56″W
(41.230106, -80.498960)[1]
in southwest Mercer County, the city borders the
city of
Hermitage to the north and east, the city of
Farrell to the south, and on the west the
census-designated places of
Masury and
West Hill, Ohio.
It is a common misconception that the northern
edge of Sharon borders the borough of
Sharpsville; however, a thin strip of Hermitage
prevents this.
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a
total area of 3.8 square
miles (9.7 km²),
all of it land. However, the
Shenango River runs through the city and
provides drinking water to Sharon and several
surrounding communities.
Demographics
As of the
census[2]
of 2000, there were 16,328 people, 6,792 households,
and 4,190 families residing in the city. The
population density was 4,342.6 people per square
mile (1,676.7/km²). There were 7,388 housing units
at an average density of 1,964.9/sq mi (758.6/km²).
The racial makeup of the city was 86.44%
White, 10.85%
African American, 0.18%
Native American, 0.21%
Asian, 0.02%
Pacific Islander, 0.23% from
other races, and 2.08% from two or more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 0.88% of the population.
From the Census Ancestry Question, Sharon has the
following ethnic make-up: German 21%, Irish 14%,
Italian 11%, Black or African American 11%, English
8%, Polish 5%, Slovak 5%, Welsh - 3%, Scotch-Irish
2%, Hungarian 2%, Dutch 2%, French (except Basque)
2%, Croatian 1%, Scottish 1%, Russian 1%, Swedish
1%, Arab 1%, Slavic 1%, American Indian tribes,
specified 1%.
There were 6,791 households out of which 28.1%
had children under the age of 18 living with them,
40.7% were
married couples living together, 16.6% had a
female householder with no husband present, and
38.3% were non-families. 33.7% of all households
were made up of individuals and 15.5% had someone
living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The
average household size was 2.33 and the average
family size was 2.97.
In the city the population was distributed with
24.4% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 27.2%
from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who
were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38
years. For every 100 females there were 88.3 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were
83.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city was
$26,945, and the median income for a family was
$34,581. Males had a median income of $30,072 versus
$20,988 for females. The
per capita income for the city was $15,913.
About 14.0% of families and 17.6% of the population
were below the
poverty line, including 25.8% of those under age
18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.
Census Figures
In
1900, the population was 8,916 persons; in
1910, 15,270 persons; in
1920, 21,747 persons; and 25,622 people lived in
Sharon in
1940. The population was 16,328 at the 2000
census.Sharon, along with Mercer County, is counted
by the US Census Bureau as part of the
Youngstown-Warren, OH Metropolitan Area.
Education
The
Sharon City School District comprises three K-6
elementary schools (Case Avenue, C.M. Musser, and
West Hill) and the 7-12 Sharon Middle/High School.
The city is also home to
St. Joseph's Parish School, a K-8 school
affiliated with the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Erie, and
Shenango Valley Faith Academy, a
nondenominational Christian school with heavy
emphasis on individualized education.
Postsecondary education and training
opportunities can be pursued at Sharon's
Penn State Shenango campus (the only urban
campus in the Penn State system),
Laurel Technical Institute, and the Schools of
Nursing and Radiography at Sharon Regional Health
System. Additionally, a branch campus of
Meadville-based
Precision Manufacturing Institute is being
constructed in the city and will begin offering
classes in 2008.
Local Businesses
The following is a list of notable businesses
that are currently based in Sharon:
Local Personalities
Notable native Sharonites include:
Broadcast Media
Because of Sharon's location on the
Pennsylvania/Ohio border, it is served by
NBC affiliate
WFMJ,
CBS affiliate
WKBN-TV,
FOX affiliate
WYFX-LP, and
ABC affiliate
WYTV, all broadcast from nearby
Youngstown.
Trivia
The
1988 movie Tiger Warsaw, starring
Patrick Swayze, was filmed in Sharon. The film,
directed by Pakistani filmmaker Amin Chaudhri (who
started a studio in the Sharon area), made extensive
usage of the town's post-industrial backdrop.
Although located in Pennsylvania, Sharon is the
site of the Brookfield Elementary School, a public
elementary school serving residents of the adjacent
Brookfield (Ohio) Local School District. This
anomaly occurred when the Ohio school district
purchased the closed Sacred Heart School, located on
Sharon's West Hill. Because the school site borders
Ohio, there was consideration of actually changing
the Pennsylvania-Ohio state line to move the school
into Ohio (or vice-versa), but the legal
difficulties of the Ohio district operating a school
in Pennsylvania were resolved without re-drawing the
state line.
References
External links
