Located in Washington Township of Erie County, and considered part of the Erie Metropolitan Statistical Area, Edinboro is a borough roughly 20 miles south of the city. Edinboro is a college town and a lake resort area in the summer, while located in the snowbelt portion of Pennsylvania during the winter. With an enrollment of nearly 8,000, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania has more college students than there are residents of Edinboro, as the total population for the borough is 6,950.
History
First inhabited by the Eriez, Iroquois, and Cornplanter Indians, the region now known as Edinboro was a dense forest with no accessible roads that was referred to as Conneauttee, meaning "land of the living snowflake." At the beginning of the 19th century, a gristmill near the outlet of Conneauttee Lake was built by William Culbertson which established the beginnings of the borough by subdividing a portion of his 500 acre tract. With farmland being cleared, a community began to take shape.
As the community began to form, churches – mostly Presbyterian and Methodist – began forming. Soon after, the first school in the area was built in 1825 by William Culbertson and in 1837 the first Edinboro post office branch opened. By the mid 1850’s, a turnpike was completed between Erie and Meadville, through Edinboro. An academy was started in 1855, which eventually evolved into the modern day Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
By the start of the 20th century, an electric railway had been built connecting Edinboro with Erie, Pa. Throughout the beginning of the century, the community began to build, mostly along Edinboro Lake as a resort town. Mid-century saw the beginning of more full scale growth and development of the borough with subdivisions, apartment complexes and many office buildings. Today, the borough is the largest in Erie County, and still continues to grow.
Edinboro University Of Pennsylvania
Founded as a private training school for Pennsylvania teachers in 1857, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania was originally named Edinboro Academy. The University is the second oldest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Today, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania is a public liberal arts university and one of 14 schools in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university is located on 585 acre main campus as well as a Meadville facility and the Porreco Center in Erie, Pa. The University has nearly 8,000 enrolled students.
Recognized for providing a quality education at a reasonable cost, the University is most known for its liberal arts program. With more than 1,000 students in four undergraduate programs (Art History, Applied Media Arts, Fine Arts/Crafts, and Art Education) Edinboro University of Pennsylvania has the largest liberal arts undergraduate degree program in Art in New England. The University also has two graduate programs (Master of Arts and Master of Fine Arts).
