Greensburg's City Hall's former life as trolley station will be commemorated

Greensburg City Hall’s previous life as a trolley station will be commemorated in a sign along South Main Street.

Planning director Alec Italiano said he applied for, and received, a $2,500 grant to buy the marker after learning about the opportunity through the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.

“It just sort of popped into my head because I knew city hall had always been a trolley station,” he said.

The building was opened in 1927 by West Penn Railways Co. as a station and headquarters, according to a Sept. 27, 1927, article in The Daily Courier. Residents then relied on electric-powered trolleys, or streetcars, to get around to nearby towns.

West Penn Railways had numerous local stops for the trolley, including Latrobe, Mammoth and Jeannette, as shown in a map included with the news report.

Trolley ridership surged when the area home front mobilized for World War II. But afterwards, more people bought cars, rendering the trolley obsolete. West Penn Railways saw its last profit, slightly more than $25,000, in 1949. The company was authorized to abandon its service in Westmoreland County in late 1951, according to news accounts.

By 1954, Greensburg had bought the South Main Street building for $280,000 and made $70,000 worth of renovations, according to an article that year in The Saltsburg Press.

Decades later, paving work at the city hall parking lot this spring revealed old trolley tracks hidden beneath the street.

“We see the historical significance of the trolley system in Southwestern Pennsylvania and we’re really excited that Greensburg forever can be a marker towards that as times change,” said Councilman Greg Mertz.

The sign will be installed at a later date.