Sharon, Pennsylvania

Sharon is a city located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, 75 miles (121 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. Sharon was settled in 1795. It was a borough until the twentieth century. Thanks to its large coal deposits, Sharon was once a major 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. 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. Today there is still some steel and metalworking as well as other manufacturing, but like most of America the city has been the victim of deindustrialization; most of the city's job growth today is in the service sector. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 16,328.

Related Topics:
Mercer County, Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh - 1795 - 1900 - 1910 - 1920 - 1940 - 2000

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A quirky Midwestern town, Sharon was until the early 1980s an important industrial center. It has today earned recognition and a small amount of tourist dollars through the somewhat dubious promotion of a number of "world's largest"s, including the "world's largest" shoe store (Reyers), candy store (Daffin's), and off-price women's fashion store (The Winner), as well as the original Quaker Steak and Lube, a bar specializing in chicken wings, and Tara, an American Civil War-style plantation not located in the Deep South. Much of this is the brainchild of local entrepreneur James E. Winner Jr., who also made Sharon famous through his invention of The Club, a very popular auto-theft prevention device.

Related Topics:
Midwest - 1980s - Quaker Steak and Lube - American Civil War - Deep South - The Club

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Sharon is also the home of Sharon Regional Health System, a massive full-service community hospital uncommonly found in communities of its size; the Vocal Group Hall of Fame; and the Shenango Campus of Pennsylvania State University, which is the only urban campus in the Penn State system.

Related Topics:
Sharon Regional Health System - Vocal Group Hall of Fame - Pennsylvania State University

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