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Altoona, Pennsylvania
Summary
Altoona is a city in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 43,963 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the 18th-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the Altoona metropolitan area, which includes all of Blair County and was recorded as having a population of 122,822 at the 2020 census.
Altoona was established in 1849 by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Having grown around the railroad industry, the city has worked to recover from industrial decline and urban decentralization experienced in recent decades. The city is home to the Altoona Curve baseball team of the Eastern League, which is the AA affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team. They play at Peoples Natural Gas Field in Altoona. The Altoona Symphony Orchestra has called Altoona home since 1928. Prominent landmarks include the Horseshoe Curve, the Railroaders Memorial Museum, the Juniata Shops of the Altoona Works, the Mishler Theatre, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, and the Jaffa Shrine Center.
Pennsylvania in the American Revolution and Pennsylvania in the American Civil War
One explanation of the city's name is that the word Altoona is a derivative of the Latin word altus, meaning high.
That explanation is contradicted by Pennsylvania Place Names. One history named a Colonel Beverly Mayer of Columbia, Pennsylvania, a civil engineer of the Pennsylvania Central Railway, as the person who named Altoona after the city of Altona in Danish Holstein, which became part of Germany in 1864. The German Altona, which is today a district of Hamburg, lies on the right bank of the Elbe and is an important railway and manufacturing center.
In 1849, David Robinson sold his farm to Archibald Wright of Philadelphia, who transferred the property to his son, John A. Wright, who laid it out in building lots, became one of the founders of Altoona, and is considered another person who may have named the city. According to his own statement, he had spent considerable time in the Cherokee country of Georgia.
Official source
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