New Kensington is a small city in western Pennsylvania, located on the Allegheny River. Its population was 13,116 at the 2010 census, and is expected to be around 12,188 by 2020. The city is home to a diverse ethnic population, plentiful affordable housing, and a growing educational community. The city is easily accessible via Route 28.
New Kensington is located in west central Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. The city has a climate that is continental, with cold, snowy winters and warm to hot summers. New Kensington has a variety of ethnic groups.
The city began developing in the early twentieth century. During this period, the downtown area consisted of two and three-story commercial buildings constructed of brick and wood. These buildings were home to merchants that catered to the growing population. As the population of the city grew, the city's commercial district expanded to the north and east.
The Burrell Improvement Company purchased a level piece of land south of Lower Burrell as a prime location for a city. The company named the area Kensington, but later changed it to New Kensington for postal purposes. The company hoped to make New Kensington a comparable town to Pittsburgh. The city was laid out along avenues parallel to the Allegheny River and numbered from Second to Nineteenth. The street names were based on the numbering system. In addition to the streets being named, the city had avenues that paralleled the railroad and the river.