July 2006
No Place Like Home 10 Neighborhoods You Need To Know About
by Christine O'Toole / Photography by Lisa Kyle
Map Illustration by Phil Wilson
ZELIENOPLE Median Home Price: $126,400
Population: 4,123
Factoid: The Strand Theater gets
an all-star renovation
 

Main Street U.S.A.
Six blocks off Main Street, two locals pleasantly pass the time of day: a pair of chestnut-brown horses grazing nose-to-nose in a field two minutes from the hardware store, bank and post office.
There really is a country-style Main Street running through Zelienople, a 200-year-old settlement on the banks of Connoquenessing Creek, and it's still the beating heart of this Butler County town.
"It's got a charm unlike anywhere else in Western Pennsylvania," says Allan Walton, who's lived in the area since 1991 and makes a daily 40-minute commute to his post as assistant managing editor of features at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "It's original and genuine, with a really active Main Street with lots of window shoppers."

Many Pittsburghers get to know "Zelie" while ferrying youngsters to a favorite summer haunt: The YMCA's Camp Kon-O-Kwee is just down the road. Less than 10 miles north of Cranberry, with which it shares the Seneca Valley School District, Zelienople is smaller, older and more settled than its booming neighbor. But the youngest ones still think it's a treat to be lifted up to the lion water fountain at the corner of Grandview Avenue and Main Street, or to visit Santa Claus there each December.
 

Main Street is anchored by two marquee attractions. One is the red-brick Kaufman House, a genteel restaurant that was once a solid old hotel. The other is The Strand Theater, a former movie theater now being refurbished as a performing arts, education and community outreach center after decades of neglect. Donations and state grants are turning the lights back on. "We should have a functional structure by March," says Ron Carter, who's led the preservation effort. "We'll present films again, and have professional tours of off-Broadway stuff and music." Local lore says Judy Garland introduced one of her films at the Strand in the late 1940s.
Main Street's handsome storefront facades--the hardware store, grocery, newsstand, coffee shop, bank and post office--are spic-and-span, and vacancies are rare. Victorian homes, some converted to bed-and-breakfasts and funeral parlors, cluster along the side streets. When German diplomat Baron Dettmar Basse bought 10,000 acres here in 1802, he named the town for his daughter, Zelie, who married Philipp Passavant. The couple's well-preserved home is now the headquarters of the town's historical society.
Less-grand homes are just as well-preserved. Victorian painted ladies, brick four-squares and solid stone walls bespeak permanence and pride. The community park is the site of a popular youth triathlon, this year on Sat., July 29, which uses its pool, biking and running trails. Out of town, nearby parks include massive Moraine State Park and Hereford Lake for shore fishing.
With luck and clear conditions on I-79, Zelie's a half-hour from downtown Pittsburgh. Unless, that is, you fly: Zelie's municipal airport (a mile from town) is a public, general-aviation facility that offers daytime excursions to Pittsburgh; it's operated by Zelienople Municipal Authority and owned by the borough.