Garden View Estates

Center Township is a rapidly growing community located approximately 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. Comprising a land area of 15.4 square miles (40 km2) and a population of 11,492 in the 2000 census.

 

Center Township is home to three colleges, along with being one of the largest retail centers in the area. Ambitious municipal and recreation programs include a system of parks and playgrounds with picnic areas, recreation programs and a Community Youth Center.

 

Although Center Township is new among the family of communities making up Beaver County, her traditions go back to the earliest period of Ohio Valley History. Prior to colonial explorers, native Indians traveled the "Glade Path", an important trail crossing the future township North to South.

 

One family of settlers in Beaver Valley, the Bakers, made their home in 1774 in the hills above Raccoon Creek near what is now Pleasant Drive in Center Township. At that time, all lands South of the Ohio had been claimed by Virginia, with the seat of Government at Pittsburgh.

 

During the course of the Revolutionary War, Fort McIntosh was constructed at Beaver to aid settlers in defense against the Indians and the British at Detroit. Supplies were brought from Pittsburgh along the old Indian path. The trace was renamed Brodhead's Road, after the Commander of Fort McIntosh.

 

When Beaver County was formed in 1800, three Townships were created on the Southside: Hanover, First Moon and Second Moon. Later (in 1812) the area was reorganized into four Townships. One of these was Moon, the parent of Center. Over the years, other communities were formed from Moon: Raccoon Township in 1837, Phillipsburg Borough in 1840 (now Monaca), and Potter Township in 1912.

 

In 1914, a serious dispute among Moon Township residents split the Township, separating the heavily populated suburban section in the North from the much larger sparsely populated region in the South and West. On November 24, 1914, after a second election, the court decreed that the larger Southern section be known as Center Township. Eighteen years later, the remaining portion of Moon in the north was annexed by Monaca, becoming that Borough's Fourth and Fifth Wards (Monaca Heights and Colona Heights). Today, Center can take her place among the larger and most progressive communities in Beaver County as new housing plans develop around the township.

 

Center Township now borders a portion of the borough of Monaca and the city Aliquippa. Since the township does not have a mailing center all the residents of Center Township have either a Monaca or Aliquippa mailing address.