Brentwood, PA is a small suburban borough just south of Pittsburgh. The borough borders on the Carrick neighborhood.
Brentwood Park is home to Brentwood Stadium, where high school sports are played. The park was renovated in the 2010s after an independent committee promoted community awareness of the park and raised funds for improvements. Turf replaced grass at the stadium. New basketball and tennis courts, and a quarter-mile rubber track, replaced facilities that were seventy years old. The park also has baseball fields and an in-line dek hockey rink. New lighting was installed that is energy-efficient.
Children attend Brentwood Borough School District, which provides educational services to around 1,300 students at Moore Elementary and Elroy Avenue Elementary schools (kindergarten to 5th grades), Brentwood Middle School (grades 6 through 8), and Brentwood High School.
The Brentwood Public Library is located at 3501 Brownsville Rd – in the center of the borough, at the entrance to the park. The library has a children’s area, which hosts story times and other children’s events. For adults, there’s a book club and educational classes. The library has a reading room, meeting rooms and a community room. There are many computers available. Books, movies, puppets, puzzles and magazines can be borrowed.
The Brentwood Arboretum – a beautiful collection of trees – is located on the grounds of Brentwood Park, the school district and the library. Many of the trees existed there before it was founded in 1997. New ones have been planted since.
Two main roads pass through Brentwood – Brownsville Road and PA Route 51.
Many borough businesses thrive along Brownsville Road, which originates north of Brentwood in Mt Oliver and Carrick.
A supermarket, handful of retail stores, banks, fast food restaurants, phone stores, health care facilities and other businesses operate at Brentwood Towne Square, which is also located on Brownsville Road.
The borough municipal building, high school library and park are situated along Brownsville Road in Brentwood.
PA Route 51, which is called Saw Mill Run Boulevard in Pittsburgh, is a major four-lane road. Numerous businesses, many of them locally owned, are located along Route 51.
AHN Brentwood Neighborhood Hospital is located on Route 51. The hospital provides an emergency room, overnight stays, imaging and diagnostic services.
Brentwood has been home to the Brentwood Firecracker 5K, Brentwood Parade and Fireworks – which attract upwards of 40,000 people to the borough for the Fourth Of July – for more than a century.
Brentwood Loop has long brought mass transit to Brentwood. The 51L Port Authority bus provides express service from the loop through Carrick to the South Side, Station Square and downtown Pittsburgh. 51-Carrick provides much the same service into Pittsburgh. From the Brentwood Loop, the 51-Carrick continues outbound through Brentwood, south along PA Route 51 and into West Mifflin.
Brentwood Borough has a Mayor-Council government. The Borough Manager performs the majority of administrative functions. The Municipal Building is located at 3735 Brownsville Road. Brentwood government services include police, fire, EMS and other functions.
9,600 people live in Brentwood Borough. They are almost entirely of European origin. The rest are a scattering of people who are Hispanic or Latino, African-America, Native American, or of Asian or Oceania origin. Citizens can vote for mayor, borough council, County Council (District 6), the State Legislature – Legislative District 36 and Senatorial District 45 – and U.S. Congressional District 14.
History
Following the Revolutionary War, people traveling west to settle lands that became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota traveled Brownsville Road, passing through what what was then Baldwin Township and later became Brentwood. It was a dirt road. Brentwood was a place to change horses.
The Point View Hotel opened in the area in the early 1800s. U.S. presidents stayed at the inn before becoming president. It was a stop on the Underground Railroad, which provided secret routes and safe houses to help enslaved African-American people escape to freedom. After 200 years, the Point View Hotel was demolished in the 2000s.
Other hotels opened along Brownsville Road in the 1800s to cater to people traveling Brownsville Road, which was an important national, regional and local thoroughfare in those years.
Unitl the early 1910s, Brentwood was a village in Baldwin Township. Its citizens broke away to create Brentwood Borough. The fire department and police department were organized right after the borough was formed. Brentwood EMS was founded in the 1970s.
Along with Carrick/Pittsburgh, Brentwood Borough shares borders with Baldwin and Whitehall.