Incorporated: As a borough March 7, 1904

Location: Eastern Allegheny County, 13 miles southeast of Downtown Pittsburgh; Wall covers 0.48 of a square mile and is accessed primarily by Routes 30 and 130

Population: 664 (estimated June 2008, U.S. Census)

Government: Mayor-council

Mayor: Robert Arlet (D)

Secretary: Melissa Swidorsky

Median price of a home: $29,000 after the third quarter of 2009, up from $20,000 a year earlier

Municipal phone, Web site: 412-824-3333, www.wallborough.com

School district: East Allegheny, 412-824-8012, www.eawildcats.net

History: Wall, with an estimated 664 residents, has the smallest population among Allegheny County municipalities in the PG East region. As with other towns in the Turtle Creek Valley, the borough had its seeds sown on a farm and grew up around industry.

Wall is on the site of a farm that James Walls purchased in 1829 and eventually passed on to his sons, Henry and John. They lived in a log cabin in what is now the center of town.

Walls Station, a rail station named for the family and on the Pennsylvania Railroad line, was built in the early 1840s. The station and the town that developed around the railroad later was shortened to Wall Station. The brothers sold their land to a cousin, Francis Walls, aka "Frank Wall," who developed the property.

The borough was incorporated in 1904, and it grew rapidly after a freight depot was built there by the Pennsylvania Railroad. But as the rail industry declined during the second half of the 20th century, so did Wall's population and economy.

First Published: January 7, 2010, 10:00 a.m.