Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania

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Map of Allegheny County with Mt. Lebanon highlighted

Mt. Lebanon is a home rule municipality in Allegheny County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A fairly affluent streetcar suburb of nearby Pittsburgh, Mt. Lebanon is well known for its excellent educational facilities, especially its high school's fine arts department. The town was initially established in 1912 as "Mount Lebanon"; the official name changed to "Mt. Lebanon" in 1975. The town's and high school's longstanding nickname is "Lebo". As of the 2000 census, Mt. Lebanon population was 33,017.

History

In 1912, Mount Lebanon Township was incorporated as a "First Class Township" under Pennsylvania state law. It had formerly been a part of Scott Township, which in turn traces its origins to the long-defunct St. Clair township. Mount Lebanon was named for two Cedars of Lebanon trees from Palestine that were planted in 1850 on land that is now part of the Mt. Lebanon Country Club.

In 1928, Mount Lebanon became the first "First Class Township" in Pennsylvania to adopt the council-manager form of government and has had an appointed manager serving as the chief administrative officer since that time.

Mount Lebanon became a streetcar suburb almost immediately: the first line through the area opened in 1902, the second in 1924. Between the 1920 and 1930 censuses, the township's population skyrocketed from 2,258 to 13,403. Today, Pittsburgh's mass transit agency, the Port Authority Transit of Allegheny County, or "PATransit," operates a subway system whose 42-S line runs underneath Uptown Mt. Lebanon, merges with the 47-L line in Pittsburgh's Mt. Washington section, and connects to the WBA and EBA busway lines at Downtown Pittsburgh's intercity rail station, Penn Station. Mt. Lebanon's only platform station, Mt. Lebanon Station, is in Uptown Mt. Lebanon; the adjacent Dormont Junction and Castle Shannon stations are in neighboring municipalities. And as of the census^{[Geographic references#2GR2]} of 2000, there were 33,017 people living in Mt. Lebanon.

On May 21, 1974, the electorate approved a Home Rule Charter, which took effect on January 1, 1975 making Mount Lebanon one of the first municipalities in Pennsylvania to adopt a home rule charter. In the charter, the official name of the municipality became Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania; the word "Mount" is abbreviated in all government documents, although the U.S. Postal Service continues to use "Mount."

Geography

Mt. Lebanon is a suburb of Pittsburgh seven miles south of Downtown Pittsburgh. There are two small borders with Pittsburgh to the northeast, but most of the northeast border is with Dormont. Immediately north, Green Tree has an intersection bordering Mt. Lebanon. The entire western border is with Scott Township. To the south are the two towns which, due to their comparable size and affluence, are most often compared with Mt. Lebanon: Upper St. Clair to the southwest and Bethel Park to the southeast. To the east is Castle Shannon, and finally, to the northeast, Baldwin Township (not to be confused with the Borough of Baldwin).

[Uptown Mt. Lebanon] is the central business district and has Washington Rd. (U.S. Rt. 19) as its main thoroughfare. (U.S. Rt. 19 continues into Pittsburgh and back out into the city's northern suburbs and beyond.) Uptown Mt. Lebanon is one of the more built up central business districts outside of Pittsburgh. There are sizable business districts along the borders with Upper St. Clair and Castle Shannon, as well.

Demographics

There were 13,610 households out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.3% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.7% were non-families. 30.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 24.8% under the age of 18, 4.0% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 18.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 87.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.1 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $60,783, and the median income for a family was $79,744. Males had a median income of $56,183 versus $37,008 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $33,652. About 2.2% of families and 3.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.9% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Mt. Lebanon is well known in the region for its public school system. Mt. Lebanon High School has been named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education each of the three times it requested certification: 1983-84, 1990-91, and 1997-98. The other schools have been awarded with similar frequency. The High School is also widely recognized for having one of the best fine arts departments in the nation.

Note: Keystone Oaks High School is physically located in Mt. Lebanon, but it serves the youth of the adjacent communities of Greentree, Dormont and Castle Shannon. [Seton-LaSalle High School], a Diocese of Pittsburgh school, is also physically located in Mt. Lebanon as well.

Famous people

• Actors and Actresses["Mt. Lebanon High School marks 75 years of theater"], Mary Niederberger, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, South Section, Nov. 17, 2005.
• *Dan London (Patch Adams)
• *Joe Manganiello (Spider-Man)
• *Ming-Na (Joy Luck Club, ER, Mulan)
• *Gillian Jacobs (The Book of Daniel)
• Athletics
• *Kurt Angle, US Olympic gold-medal wrestler and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestler; and brother Eric Angle, former WWE professional wrestler
• *John Frank, former San Francisco 49ers wide receiver and Israeli bobsled team member
• *Jamie Silverstein, U.S. Olympic ice dancing team member
• *Keith Van Horne, former tackle for the Chicago Bears
• Other Famous Citizens
• *Mark Cuban, self-made billionaire and owner of the Dallas Mavericks
• *Matt Kennedy Gould, star of reality parody TV show The Joe Schmo Show (Spike TV, 2003)
• *Phil and Fruma Klass, science fiction authors (residents since 1988)
• *Terry Hart, retired astronaut (1964 graduate)
• *[Heather Rarick] , NASA flight director
• *Peter Safar, pioneer in Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (died in Mt. Lebanon in 2003)

References