Grove City, Pennsylvania
One of the Top Five Cities to Live in the U.S.
Published January 2020
Top ranking borough
Grove City was recently ranked as one of America’s top five cities to live in, according to 24/7 Wall Street’s annual America’s 50 Best Cities to Live, published in USA Today in September 2019. According to the report, Grove City is one of the most affordable places to live in the country, with goods and services costing about 80 percent of national averages.
The Borough of Grove City is located in the heart of scenic Western Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Pittsburgh. Its history began in 1798 as a small community, then known as Pine Grove, that began to thrive with the connection of rail service and booming coal mining operations in the region. The community was renamed Grove City in 1883 when it became a borough.
Thriving economy
In their explanation of the borough’s number five ranking, 24/7 Wall Street reported that Grove City had a five-year unemployment rate of only 0.9 percent during a period when the national average rate was 4.1 percent.
The borough has long been home to two of General Electric Transportation’s larger locomotive engine production plants, and is in close proximity to a number of other major employers, providing the local workforce with a diverse set of options.
Grove City is also home to Grove City College, a private learning institution of liberal arts originally founded in 1876. The college is a huge part of this small community’s success, bringing in more than 2,000 additional residents and drawing in countless additional visitors during the school year, while also serving as one of the largest employers within the borough limits.
Grove City’s mix of employers has prevented it from becoming reliant on one or two large companies, and as a result, made it more resilient to economic downturns.
Celebrating arts and recreation
Grove City is an active and artistic community of 8,322 residents, and boasts an extensive system of parks and neighborhood playgrounds.
Olde Town Grove City is a nonprofit organization committed to creating a better downtown Grove City through economic initiatives, promotional efforts and physical improvements. The organization received a grant through the Pennsylvania Downtown Center and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful to bring young artists and students into the community to create public art, including a 24-by-46-foot mural celebrating historical events and people from Grove City’s past.
Reliable and local service
The Grove City Electric Department was founded in 1908 and currently serves 3,036 meters.
As a member of AMP, Grove City participates in AMP programs and projects that assist in providing reliable energy and other benefits to the community and its citizen-owners. These include:
- Mutual Aid, a network of municipal electric systems that assist each other when utility emergencies occur that are too widespread to be handled by one system alone
- PASG (Pennsylvania AMP Service Group)
For more information, please visit www.grovecityonline.com.