Valencia — a tiny borough with a big history
A tiny borough that’s technically separate from the borough of Mars and Adams Township, Valencia has a history all its own.
Formerly known as Brookside, then Sunnyside, the borough of Valencia was incorporated in either 1896 or 1897 — historical records conflict on which date is correct. Local history suggests the name was changed from Sunnyside to avoid confusion with a similarly-named train station elsewhere in Butler County.
While Valencia today has a population of less than 1,000, it was a far more active suburb in the early part of the 20th century. The reason for that was America’s emerging railroad system, which came to Valencia in 1878, before the borough was even had its current name.
Valencia grew thanks to its position on the Pittsburgh, New Castle, and Lake Erie Railroad, which ran from Zelienople in the north to Etna in the south. At its peak, Valencia could boast four grocery stores, two meat markets, a cement block plant, a lumber yard, a hardware store, and its own school district.
Its volunteer fire station, which opened in 1927, served not just Valencia itself, but also Mars, Adams and Middlesex townships in Butler County, as well as Pine and Richland townships in Allegheny County.
Valencia was also served by the Pittsburgh & Butler Street Railway — better known as the “Butler Shortline” — a trolley route between Butler and Pittsburgh with some stops in-between. The Shortline opened in the mid-1900s and lasted until 1931.
According to the 1973 book “Life on Mars,” it took until 1958 for someone to discover that part of the borough was actually in Allegheny County. To make matters even more complicated, the county line bisected some properties, forcing some residents and business to pay taxes to both counties.
The general store owned by J.R. Stoup was also affected by this discovery. Despite being nicknamed “Mr. Valencia,” it turned out that his store was technically in Richland Township, in Allegheny County. However, he stated publicly that he still considered himself a resident of Valencia and Butler County.
For decades, Valencia was most well-known for being an annual summertime destination for hundreds of inner-city children from Pittsburgh. Starting in 1903, a 65-acre plot in Valencia was home to the Lillian Taylor Camp, a “fresh air farm” operated by the nonprofit Kingsley Association.
In 2005, the Kingsley Association sold the property to St. Barnabas Health System for $3.1 million. Despite initial plans for the camp to continue operating for at least two years after the sale, the camp closed shortly afterward. St. Barnabas would use the site to build a complex of senior homes.
As the automobile overtook passenger rail in the early 20th century, Valencia’s boom period ended and its businesses slowly left. The last grocery store in town, J.R. Stoup’s, closed in 1974 after operating for 69 years.
