The Rostraver Township post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Rostraver (1828), Gibsonton (1884) and Van Meter (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 11,224 in 19902020 census: 11,393198 years
How historic is Rostraver Township?
B−
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Rostraver Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rostraver Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rostraver Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #728 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rostraver Township’s overall grade.
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Rostraver Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Rostraver Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rostraver Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1902Brownsville sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rostraver Township.
Rostraver Township is in the southwestern corner of Westmoreland County and is the location of the Household No. 1 Site, which was once occupied by a Monongahela village. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The name of the township has been traced back to Rostrevor, a seaside community in County Down, now in Northern Ireland. It is known that some of the early settlers, such as the McClains, came from County Down so it is surmised that they probably named their new community out of affection for the native village and spelled it phonetically as Rostraver Unfortunately, they neglected to leave to posterity any record of having done so.
The Rostraver Township post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rostraver Township rank for history?
Rostraver Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #728 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Rostraver Township?
12% of Rostraver Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.1 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1975.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
