Mark Durkay put a new front porch and steps on his Latrobe home a few years ago, but his family wasn’t able to fit a replacement for their weathered front door and broken storm door into their budget. “We had a new porch made with bricks, but the door was
A central retail space in downtown Latrobe where shoppers used to head decades ago in search of bargains from G.C. Murphy is primed for a new lease on life, thanks to restoration work completed inside and out by a local nonprofit. The unusual L-shaped building, with storefronts on Ligonier and
A countywide blight study completed earlier this year found that nearly 10% of Latrobe’s properties have problems like peeling paint, cracked bricks or rotting wood. A program to help Latrobe address the issue is receiving a $150,000 boost from Robindale Energy Services. The Latrobe-based company donated the money to the
Steve Patricia had a dream when he was young: to someday work for National Geographic. Patricia looked at the nonprofit as an organization that created “art for science’s sake.” As someone who grew up interested in science, history and art, he was drawn to that type of work. “I’ve always
There are 17,000 fewer people in Westmoreland County than there were 20 years ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Business and cultural shifts have pushed shopping and industrial centers out of downtowns and into what once were open spaces. Today, abandoned homes and structures dot communities throughout the county,