Wall is located at the site of a farm purchased by James Walls in 1829. The property, on the south bank of Turtle Creek, was passed to James' sons Henry and John Walls, who lived in a log cabin near the heart of present-day Wall. A station on the Pennsylvania Railroad opened in the early 1840s, which was named "Walls' Station" in honor of the Walls family. Eventually, the name of the station and the town that grew up around it was shortened to "Wall Station". Henry and John Walls sold their property to their cousin Frank Wall, an engineer on riverboats who developed the property around the station. Wall got its name after this Frank Wall, whose said property development led to him being the owner of the first two houses erected in the region.
Peaked at 2,426 in 1920; 519 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wall’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Wall in 1889
Passages that mention Wall, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania1889 · page 114Read the page →
Read the text
not improved with age. There is a fine Methodist church, built in 1883, a schoolhouse, and a population of several hundred. A postofiice was established there in 1850. Saltsburg, midway between Port Perry and Demmler, is a straggling village of perhaps half a dozen houses. Wall, on the Pennsylvania railroad, fourteen miles from Pittsburgh, is the eastern terminus of suburban accommodation trains. The first postmaster, James Dempsey, was appointed February 19, 1885. There are also stations on this road at Turtle Creek, Wilmerding and Moss Side. The village of Turtle Creek is in Patton township.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Wall, 1829 to 1966
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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