A small western Pennsylvania town, in south Butler County. Saxonburg is located 23 miles northeast of Pittsburgh and 8 miles southeast of Butler. The one zip code in Saxonburg is 16056. As of November 2002, the borough population of Saxonburg is approximately 1,345 (the community population is 4,693). The approximate number of families is 580. The amount of land area in Saxonburg is 2.266 square kilometers. Saxonburg is positioned 40.75 degrees north of the equator and 79.81 degrees west of the prime meridian. Elevation is 1288 feet. Nearby towns are Cabot, Valencia, Sarver, and Bairdford.
History
In
1831, a young German man named
John Augustus Roebling and his younger brother, Karl, organized a small group of the younger people of their
neighborhood and undertook to lead their
emigration to the
United States. They had planned to live their new lives in America in the West; however, certain financial and political difficulties led to the final adoption of a site near Pittsburgh for their proposed community. The town was at first called
Germania, but later became known as Saxonburg.
John Roebling later went on to design
America's first
wire rope, and serve as the chief architect of the
Brooklyn Bridge. Roebling Park, on the corner of Rebecca and Water Street, serves as a memorial to his
engineering prowess, with a demonstration of the strength of
wire rope, and a 20-foot high model of his
suspension bridge over
Brooklyn (constructed in 2001). This is the site of the Saxonburg Museum.
Education
The area education is centered in a campus on Knoch Road, off of Dinnerbell Road.
South Butler Primary School (
grades K-2),
South Butler Intermediate Elementary School (grades 3-5),
Knoch Middle School (grades 6-8), and
Knoch High School (grades 9-12). In the past (pre-2001), the elementary schools were decentralized into several schools (one in each Saxonburg, Winfield, Jefferson, and Penn
townships, hopefully I haven't forgotten anyone), whose teams competed against each other in the grade school
basketball leagues (which were refereed by Knoch basketball players), but then came together for high school at Knoch. I'm not sure how they select teams now--I'll ask next time I'm home. Knoch's
mascot is the
Knights, and the whole town gets
fired up for the
basketball season (or so it seemed to me). Their
football and
baseball teams have also had some
excellent seasons and
standout performers recently, though the football team was in a
slump in the
1990s. The football team is assisted greatly by the youth program, the
Saxonburg Spartans, which is unfortunately independent of the school district, thus privately funded. In the 2002 season, the Knoch Knights had an outstanding (relative to past performance) regular season and made it to the second round of the playoffs. The senior class had previously won several years of midget football titles.
There's pretty much no colleges in the area, unless you count
Butler County Community College, which I don't mention mainly because it's a commuter college and 20 minutes away, closer to
Butler than to Saxonburg.
Restaurant Guide
Saxonburg's mostly a residential neighborhood but it does have its commercial attractions, mostly restaurants. The best eats in town are found on Main Street, though there are some other excellent restaurants outside Saxonburg Borough limits. This guide is by no means exhaustive--when I go home for the holidays and eat at a few of the restaurants I've missed I'll update appropriately.
Prices: $ = less than $5/meal, $$ = $5-10/meal, $$$ = $11-15/meal, $$$$ = more than $15
In Town
Hotel Saxonburg ($$-$$$) - Mainly known for being a dinner place after the
Knoch sports games.
I used to wash dishes here. The chefs are the nicest guys/ladies you'd ever want to meet, and cook a mean blackened chicken sandwich. My absolute favorite part of the meals here though is the
peanut butter pie, with
crunchy chocolate crust. Be sure to save some room for it. Oh, and tip generously, I went to
school with most of these people.
;)
4 Fun Wise Guys ($) - Ice cream joint, seasonal (they generally are open from
April-
September or so). Opened in the late 90s,
1996 or
1997 as I remember. The menu has been changing the past couple of years, but the Wizzards (or whatever they call their
Dairy Queen Blizzard knockoffs these days) are suprisingly good and cheap. The name comes from the owners, the
Wise family (at least they used to own it, last time I checked).
Subway ($-$$) - First
chain restaurant to open its doors in Saxonburg (opened in late
2001-early
2002).
The end is near, friends. Won't be too long before a
Golden Arches adorns our
pristine skyline.
*snif* Darn good
subs though. Wish it would've been a
Quiznos sub shop.
Fox's Pizza Den ($) - It's a
pizza shop. It's not Pizza Hut or Little Caesar's. Not too unique in taste, but worth noting is that they also serve some good
wings. The title of best wings in the area still goes to
Star Grille in my opinion, but Fox's is a worthy
competitor, and much more
local.
Rowe's Tavern ($) - Decent
lunch place on Main Street.
Cafe Contrary ($-$$) - A great, if small,
breakfast place. Watch out for the
Sunday morning rush though--many people come after
church. A favorite of my friends and me during the summer, cheap meals, quick service and decent variety, and within walking distance of just about anywhere in Saxonburg (though that could be said of any place in town).
Outside town
King's ($$) -
Chain restaurant similar to
Denny's. Also gets hit by the Sunday morning rush, which can force you to wait half an hour or more just to get a seat.
Events
Saxonburg Festival of the Arts (early September): Annual festival that generally occurs on the first or second Saturday of September. Lots of arts and crafts booths are present, some traditional fundraisers for Knoch clubs, others just area residents making knick-knacks to sell. I occasionally see teachers here working food booths. There's a parade by the Knoch Marching Band, and the Saxonburg 5k in the morning.
Fall Festival (early September): Generally coincides with the Saxonburg Festival of the Arts, thus competing with it for attendees. This is technically a Cabot event, occurring at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, about 10 minutes outside of town. Here the focus is more on food, though there's plenty of face-painting and games booths for the kids to enjoy as well.
Carnival (early June): Usually occurs the last week of school or the week after school lets out for the summer. Roving carnies inhabit the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Co. fields, bringing rides and games of skill. Teachers work food booths here as well sometimes.
Knoch events (year-round, excepting summer): Pretty much the usual stuff: sports of football/soccer/cross country in the fall, basketball/swimming in the winter, track/tennis/baseball/softball in the spring. Also, the fall play (October-November? the date for this varies) and spring musical (mid-March) keep students busy and residents entertained. Somehow, the musicals seemed much better when I was in the pit orchestra.
Noder Listing
See The Everything People Registry : United States : Pennsylvania
Noders originally from or currently living in Saxonburg (/msg me to be added):
McCart42
Links
(last checked Nov. 30, 2002 -
/msg me if you find a dead link)
South
Butler County School District - http://southbutler.k12.pa.us/index.html
Knoch High School (this page is almost never updated) - http://southbutler.k12.pa.us/sections/khs/
Butler Eagle (local newspaper) - http://www.butlereagle.com/
Valley News Dispatch (another local newspaper) - http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (does a Saxonburg article every once in awhile) - http://www.post-gazette.com/
Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company - http://www.svfc.com/
Saxonburg Area Public Library - http://www.bcfls.org/saxonburg/
Butler County, Pennsylvania - http://www.co.butler.pa.us/
http://city.state-pa.us/Butler-County/Saxonburg
http://www.digital-neighbors.com/city/pa/saxonburg395.htm
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