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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