Portersville America250
Portersville is mainly known for being the home of the sprawling Moraine State Park and its human-made Lake Arthur, both of which opened to the public in 1970.
Although people had settled in what would later become Portersville for decades prior, it wasn’t until 1825 when the town was fully “laid out” by Robert Stewart, the son of the man who first settled on the property in 1796 (who was also named Robert).
For the first year or so of its existence, the town was known as “Stewartsville,” until it came time for the tiny village of fewer than 100 settlers to apply for a federal post office in 1826. That year, the town officially became Portersville, in honor of future Gov. David Porter.
The new Portersville grew slowly. At various points during the 19th century, the town featured a cabinet shop, a general store, a hotel, a hardware store, a drugstore, a bank, several churches, and multiple furniture stores, with the Portersville Creamery opening in 1894 to supply butter. By the last decade of the century, the population had grown to 190, and telephone service arrived by 1904, thanks to the Portersville Telephone Company.
By the early part of the 20th century, Portersville became a stop on the Western Allegheny Railroad, which was mainly used to transport industrial goods up and down Western Pennsylvania. The station closed in 1928, and the western portion of the railroad closed in 1939, with the tracks torn down three years later to be salvaged for the war effort.
In late 1938, Portersville was changed forever when 21 buildings on its main street were picked up and moved several feet, as part of what the Butler Eagle called “the greatest moving operation in the history of Butler County.” All 21 buildings were on the north side of the street, and were moved to accommodate the widening of Route 19 from two lanes to four lanes.
“Houses were moved back to make room, from the intersection with 488 and north to the driveway of the Presbyterian Church of Portersville,” said local historian and park volunteer Polly Shaw. “All sorts of promises were made to the residents to get their agreement. I have heard that a lot were empty promises.”
Although the widening was intended to improve the flow of traffic, Shaw says it didn’t seem to help — at least until Interstate 79 opened in 1958.
“Traffic on (Route) 19 was a nightmare in the 1950s and 1960s,” Shaw said. “Portersville had a reputation among truckers due to speed traps on the 3-mile stretch through town.”
Portersville once had its own high school, a yellow brick building on Perry Highway, which is now the WNA Engineering building. The high school building was repurposed as an elementary school when the Slippery Rock Area School District formed in 1963 and the high school students were transferred to the new Slippery Rock High School. The elementary school eventually closed, with those students transferring to Prospect Elementary.
Moraine State Park wasn’t the first park to open in Portersville. In the 1940s and 50s, Shawood Park offered family amusements such as rides, a midway, roller skating, and a baseball field. According to Shaw, it closed “well before” Moraine was in the planning stages.
Today, aside from Moraine, Portersville’s main attraction is The Snowman, which is part ice cream shop and part tourist attraction. The shop, located in a 13-foot-tall bust of a snowman, is open during the summer.
