7 minute read
Neighborhood Spotlight: Sturgeon
'A little place on the back road'
Sturgeon neighborhood of South Fayette boasts Panhandle Trail station, social spots and a long history
Story & photos by Harry Funk
As she worked on breading fish one Friday during Lent, Shelly Freshwater paid closer attention than usual to what she was hearing on the radio.
The hosts of “The Bubba Show” on 100.7-FM were announcing the establishments that placed in a best-pizza contest, and among the entrants was the one Freshwater owns, Hunner’s Pizza and Restaurant.
“I just wanted to make the top 10, because I’m a little place on the back road,” she recalled. “I’m like, I don’t got a chance, you know. It’s all the pizza shops in Pittsburgh."
But then: “I came in No. 3 out of 45 restaurants. So that was awesome. That helped me get my name out there.”
Her “little place” is at the corner of Station and Main streets on the South Fayette Township side of Sturgeon, a neighborhood with 19th-century origins that crosses the municipal dividing line of Robinson Run into neighboring North Fayette Township.
Across Main Street is the old railroad line that now functions as the 29-mile Panhandle Trail, spanning from Collier Township to just outside Weirton, West Virginia, with 2.73 miles in South Fayette.
“We get a lot of customers off the trail,” longtime Hunner’s employee Leslie Allen said, and she knows the pathway well. “I used to live in McDonald. For two years, I walked the trail from McDonald to Sturgeon to come to work—rain, sleet, snow, all of it.”
Sturgeon, named after settler Henry Sturgeon, drew much of its early population from workers in nearby mines, such as the Champion operation on the North Fayette side.
“The area was predominantly French and Belgian immigrants,” fifth-generation Sturgeon resident Keith Delaney said.
The group established the Franco-Belgian Mutual Benefit Association in 1908. Still operating today, the social club on Main Street is a few doors away from the Sturgeon Volunteer Fire Department, where Delaney serves as assistant chief and his brother, Craig Delaney, as chief.
“They would hold dances there, and people would take the trains from Oakdale and Carnegie here and go to the dances,” Keith Delaney said about the Belgian club, which also housed an educational component. “As immigrants came in, they would join there, and then people who lived here would help them to learn English and assimilate to the area.”
‘Sturgeon didn’t have a fire department’
Delaney, a 1992 South Fayette High School graduate, has delved deeply into local history and enjoys sharing what he’s gathered. For example, he compiled an extensive report on the fire department’s background for its website.
The department’s founding was prompted by a 1943 catastrophe along Main Street. A youngster playing with matches at the Sturgeon Hotel, one of two in the neighborhood at the time, caused a blaze that consumed an entire block, leaving 35 people homeless.
“Sturgeon didn’t have a fire department, and also, all the young men were off to war,” Delaney said. As a result, firefighters from relatively faraway places had to make long, slow treks to reach the neighborhood.
In the post-World War II return to normalcy, a group of concerned residents formed the Sturgeon brigade, using a donated truck.
Today, the Sturgeon fire department boasts blaze-battling capabilities such as a state-of the art pumper with capacity for seven crew members and amenities such as a battery-operated extrication tool and thermal-imaging camera.
Members promote other potential life-saving measures in the community.
After spouses Jon and Elaine Tummino moved Valentour’s Family Restaurant and Pub from McDonald Borough to the Sturgeon area of South Fayette in 2022, the fire department provided a LifeVac choking rescue device, along with training, at no charge, “which I thought is what a fire department should do in their town,” Jon Tummino said.
Valentour’s occupies a building with a log cabin motif (formerly Lemon Tree), a short distance uphill from the trail.
“On a weekly basis, we’ll get someone who comes in either on a cycle or walking and says, ‘I’ve been walking past this place for three years, and I just realized you’re a restaurant,’ or ‘I keep on telling myself, I’m going to go there,’” he said.
‘It’s a beautiful trail’
Bill Schanck, Ray Cox and Bill Morphy parked their bicycles on the Hunner’s bike rack during a sunny September afternoon.
“Shelly’s a friend of ours,” Schanck said, plus: “The food’s excellent.”
Near the trail's crossing of Station Street is a pavilion with picnic benches, where bicyclists Leslie Evans and Greg Zamule took a break.
“It’s a beautiful trail, and one of the things I like best about it is not only was it close, but I’d rather be on the trail than on the road,” Zamule said. “I feel safer on the trail.”
Zamule has been using the trail for 30 years, going back to before it was paved with crushed limestone—and as of late September, with asphalt.
“We actually had my 60th birthday party at his office and made everybody come and either walk or ride the trail,” Evans said.
Over at Hunner’s, Allen no longer walks the trail to work. Now she lives far enough away—in the Candor area of Robinson, Washington County—that she has to drive to Sturgeon.
“But I continued working here because it’s such a great place to work,” she said.
“All of our customers are like our family. Everyone is very nice. It’s a very nice community.”
Harry Funk is a freelance writer.
Neighborhood Spotlight: Sturgeon
Location:
Sturgeon is a historical neighborhood located partly in South Fayette and partly in North Fayette, along Noblestown Road between Oakdale and McDonald.
Number of Homes:
153 active addresses are located in the Sturgeon 15082 ZIP code.
Home Types:
Single-family, with some apartments and duplexes
Postal Service:
Mail is delivered to P.O. Boxes in the Sturgeon post office, 507 Main Street.
Streets in South Fayette:
Arlington, Beech, Cemetery Hill, Chestnut, East, Magnolia, Main, Main Ext, McNary, McVey, McVey Ext, Station, Walnut, Water
Amenities in South Fayette:
Panhandle Trail Sturgeon Station with parking, picnic shelter and restrooms; Sturgeon Park; restaurants Hunner's and Valentour's; Franco-Belgian club; Sturgeon fire department and social hall; Sturgeon post office. The Sturgeon Honor Roll is located in North Fayette.
Settlement:
Henry Sturgeon bought a land warrant in 1800 from his neighbor, Judge Hugh Henry Brackenridge, when the area was mostly farmland.
Fun Facts:
Sturgeon originally was named Arlington and then Willow Grove.
History:
sturgeonvfd.org/HistoricSturgeon.html
