The address of Norvelt, Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA is Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania USA 15674, located at latitude 40.209444, longitude -79.503611.
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Place Notes
Norvelt is an unincorporated community in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. Although the United States Census Bureau includes it in a census-designated place with the nearby community of Calumet, they are in reality two very different communities, each reflecting a different chapter in how the Great Depression affected rural Pennsylvanians. Calumet was a typical "patch town", built by a single company to house coal miners as cheaply as possible. The closing of the Calumet mine during the Great Depression caused enormous hardship in an era when unemployment compensation and welfare payments were non-existent. On the other hand, Norvelt was created during the depression by the US federal government as a model community, intended to increase the standard of living of laid-off coal miners.
--------------------------------------------------------- Dedicated on September 8, 2002 by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
A Pennsylvania Historical Marker located at LR 6406 Mount Pleasant Road (State Route 982) on the Volunteer Fire Department V.F.D. property, Norvelt reads:
Originally called "Westmoreland Homesteads", Norvelt was established April 13, 1934, by the federal government as part of a New Deal homestead project. With 250 homes, Norvelt provided housing, work, and a community environment to unemployed workers and their families during the Great Depression. It was renamed “Norvelt" in 1937 in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her interest in the project.
