Monessen
Monessen, "The City on the Hill." The Westmoreland County town that was founded and grew from industry. The city that symbolizes the tragedy of the Rust Belt. It's hard to find the best way to write about Monessen. The Monongahela Valley town is a living example of how the decline of the steel industry decimated a community. Yet, through all the blight and lost businesses of what was once a city of over 20,000 residents, there's still some hope, even if it's tinged with nostalgia. An abandoned parking deck from a time when Downtown Monessen was a destination. The parking deck was still in use as late as 2016. Monessen hasn't been the same since the early 1970s when Page Steel and Wire closed shop. The biggest blow came when Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel left town in the mid-1980s. The loss of the city's major employers put Monessen in a tailspin from which it has never recovered. The former First National Bank and Trust Company building (and former home ...