Valencia once home to ‘fresh-air farm’
For most of the 20th century, idyllic Valencia Borough was a haven for inner-city children from the stale air of congested Pittsburgh neighborhoods.
From 1903 to 2005, the Kingsley Association — a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that provides social and educational opportunities for inner-city children — operated the Lillian Taylor Camp in the borough, according to Buzz Kelly, former Valencia Historical Society member.
“They had a camp, they had a swimming pool — they’d bring kids out from Pittsburgh for some vacation,” Kelly said. “They’d come out on a Monday morning and go back Thursday the next week. They’d come out there for a two week vacation, and they had some big buildings up there and everything else.”
In 1902, Kingsley board member Charles Taylor purchased a 65-acre plot in Valencia for use as a “fresh-air farm,” according to the Kingsley Association’s archives.
Taylor named the camp for his wife and daughter, according to the archives, opening its doors on June 17, 1903, to 60 guests.
By 1926, the camp offered five 12-day sessions for 250 guests during its summer season.
“They had a big organization up there at that time,” Kelly said.
While the camp saw some interruptions during the early 1970s, the archives stated, from 1975 it continued operating as a day camp for Pittsburgh-area children.
“Then St. Barnabas’ ended up buying it off of them,” Kelly said.
Lillian Taylor Camp was sold in 2005, according to the archives, and finally closed in 2006.
While the borough has changed considerably in the 127 years since its incorporation, Kelly said, it remains “a small country town” at heart.
“It’s changed,” Kelly said. “It was communities and small families and, as far as that goes, it’s still that way — but it’s gotten older, and of course the Lillian Taylor Camp became St. Barnabas.”
According to “An Historical Gazetteer of Butler County” by Luanne Eisler and Glee McKnight, Valencia was surveyed by a Dr. Samuel O. Sterrett and incorporated in 1879.
“It was a stop on the Pittsburgh, Mars and Butler Railway,” the book read. “When it became a collection center for oil in the township, 40,000 barrel tanks lined Breakneck Creek.”
The village was originally called Brookside and then Sunnyside in the 1890s, according to Kelly.
Local lore claims it eventually took the name Valencia as a means of differentiating it from a similarly named rail stop in Lancaster Township.
“I don’t know how they came up with the name of Valencia,” Kelly said with a laugh.
And he is not alone: most sources maintain that the name is a mystery, though James McKee’s “20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa.” claims that it was Sterrett who named the borough.
The secret, seemingly, died with him.
Mysteries aside, the little borough has seen tremendous growth in the decades since its founding.
The 1900 United States Census lists the population at 149, almost doubling to 240 just 10 years later.
For most of the 20th century, the population remained around 300 — until it jumped again in 2010 to 551.
And while it was once home to miners and steelworkers, Kelly said, the borough has become a diverse community of commuters working all over the region.
At its heart though, its still Valencia.
“But the point is: the two churches are still there, and the borough’s got their office there,” Kelly said, “and, basically, it’s just a small country town.”
