Saxonburg, Pennsylvania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Saxonburg is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,629 at the 2000 census.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] History

South Butler Street, off Main Street, Saxonburg

Memorial Church

Saxonburg was founded in 1832 by John A. Roebling, who is known for the design of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, and for innovation in producing wire rope. Roebling had set out with his brother Karl and a group of pioneers from Germany in 1831 to flee the general unrest and oppression in Europe. The two men, along with a handful of the people who accompanied them on the trans-Atlantic journey secured 1582 acres (6.4 km²) of land on October 28, 1831 from Mrs. Sarah Collins. (Historic Saxonburg and Its Neighbors, Ralph Goldinger, ISBN 1-55856-043-2)

In 1946, Fred Seitz, then head of the physics department at Carnegie Tech, brought Ed Creutz (who later succeeded Seitz as department head), Jack Fox (who succeeded Creutz as department head), Roger Sutton (who succeeded Creutz as director of the Saxonburg Nuclear Research Center) and Bert Corben to Carnegie Tech to establish an important nuclear physics research program. Through a series of initiatives, a leading-edge 450 MeV proton synchrocyclotron was built at the Nuclear Research Center near Saxonburg in southern Butler County. The research program developed at Saxonburg flourished up to the mid-1970s when the then-obsolete accelerator was dismantled. The legacy of that work remains, in the form of vigorous, medium and high energy nuclear and particle physics research programs carried on by Carnegie Mellon groups at various national and international accelerator laboratories. II-VI Corporation now occupies the old Nuclear Research Center site in Saxonburg. As of 1997, the original laboratory building remains, more or less intact, as does the old dormitory/cafeteria/lounge building, which is now used for storage. The most obvious changes are that the accelerator and attendant shielding are gone, along with the farmhouse and quonset huts; the high-bay area has been converted to three levels of office and laboratory space; and there has been considerable new construction, so that the original lab building is now but a fraction of the total facility.

On the afternoon of 1980-12-04, Donald Eugene Webb allegedly killed police officer Gregory Adams in Saxonburg. Webb has been on the FBI Most Wanted List longer than any other fugitive since its creation in 1950.

[edit] Geography

Saxonburg is located at 40°45′15″N, 79°48′56″W (40.754040, -79.815619)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 2.3 km² (0.9 mi²), all land.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 1,629 people, 655 households, and 391 families residing in the borough. The population density was 714.7/km² (1,852.8/mi²). There were 713 housing units at an average density of 312.8/km² (811.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the borough was 99.32% White, 0.25% African American, 0.31% from other races, and 0.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.53% of the population.

There were 655 households out of which 22.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.8% were married couples living together, 10.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.2% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.75.

In the borough the population was spread out with 16.8% under the age of 18, 5.9% from 18 to 24, 21.9% from 25 to 44, 21.0% from 45 to 64, and 34.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 50 years. For every 100 females there were 72.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 69.0 males.

The median income for a household in the borough was $32,159, and the median income for a family was $41,875. Males had a median income of $37,500 versus $24,135 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $21,931. About 7.8% of families and 9.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.6% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.