Baldwin Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Allegheny County ( ) is a County (United States), county in Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the List of counties in Pennsylvania, state's second-most populous county, after Philadelp ...

, United States. The population was 1,984 at the 2020 census, a decrease from the figure of 1,992 tabulated in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the township has a total area of , all land. Its average elevation is above sea level.

Surrounding communities

Baldwin Township has four borders, including the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of Brookline to the north and Overbrook to the northeast and southeast. The other two borders are with Castle Shannon to the south and southwest and Mt. Lebanon to the west.

History

The area that would become Baldwin Township was originally settled around 1780. The Allegheny County Court of Quarter Sessions established Baldwin Township on February 24, 1844, from Upper St. Clair, Lower St. Clair, Jefferson, and Mifflin townships. The area was named for Henry Baldwin, a

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

lawyer who served as an

Associate Justice An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...

of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

from 1830 until his death in 1844. Baldwin Township was originally and consisted of the present-day

neighborhoods of Carrick, Hays, Brookline, and Overbrook, along with the present-day municipalities of Brentwood,

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It ...

, Castle Shannon, and Baldwin Borough. The

coal seam Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...

lying underneath Baldwin Township made

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

the township's largest industry. The township was also home to the first glass factories in Allegheny County. Agriculture was an important part of Baldwin Township's economy from 1753 to 1876. Its most well-known agricultural exports were

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The name ...

and

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of liquor made from Fermentation in food processing, fermented grain mashing, mash. Various grains (which may be Malting, malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, Maize, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky ...

(many citizens of Baldwin Township were part of the

Whiskey Rebellion The Whiskey Rebellion (also known as the Whiskey Insurrection) was a violent tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington. The so-called "whiskey tax" was the first tax impo ...

). The township continued to thrive until the late 19th century. Due to the lack of maintenance throughout the township's roads, residents of many areas broke off to form their own municipalities. In 1901, became the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Hays. Three years later in 1904, Carrick and Brookline became Pittsburgh wards, taking with them and , respectively. From 1915 to 1951, approximately of the original Baldwin Township broke off to become the municipalities of Brentwood, Castle Shannon, Mt. Lebanon,

, and Baldwin Borough. The City of Pittsburgh annexed an additional area of land that is now the city's Overbrook neighborhood. Today, only 400 of the township's original remain. Historians calculate that if Baldwin Township had never been divided, it would now be the second largest community in Allegheny County, with a population of over 100,000.

Government and politics

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 2,244 people, 869 households, and 637 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 880 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 98.62%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.27%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.58% Asian, 0.13% from other races, and 0.40% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.40% of the population. There were 869 households, out of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.3% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 9.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.6% were non-families. 23.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.98. In the township the population was spread out, with 22.7% under the age of 18, 4.3% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 19.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 83.5 males. The median income for a household in the township was $45,071, and the median income for a family was $52,200. Males had a median income of $38,750 versus $29,342 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $20,918. About 3.3% of families and 4.7% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 6.3% of those under age 18 and 3.1% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

Township website
* ttp://digital.library.pitt.edu/maps/ Historic Pittsburgh Map Collections{{Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Townships in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania