WPC Ecologist Robert Coxe put together a six-part Wednesday series explaining how western Pennsylvania places received their names. Today, Robert delivers his final entry, a tale of two trees in Mt. Lebanon.

What's In a Name? - Mount Lebanon

Mount Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh, gets its name from two Cedar-of-Lebanon (Cedrus libani) trees from the Holy Land that were planted on the property of Joseph Clokey, who was a local Presbyterian minister in the 1850s*. In 1883, a small post office, located in a country store at the intersection of Bower Hill and Washington Roads called itself the Mount Lebanon Post Office. This act locked in the name for good, much to the dismay of neighboring community Dormont, which had designs on adopting the name as well. A housing plan went up in 1901 called Mount Lebanon and, in 1912, Mount Lebanon became a township. Today, the only remaining remant of the Cedar-of-Lebanon trees are three gavels that were made out of the original wood from the trees. The Reverend Clokey's residence was torn down to make way for a plan of homes.

Pictured today is the Mt. Lebanon post office, circa 1901, at the intersection of Bower Hill and Washington Roads. The insert shows one of the gavels made from the original trees. These pictures were provided by Mount Lebanon Magazine.

* This is the widely accepted theory, but there is a chicken or the egg mystique surrounding the chain of events. Some question whether the Reverend Clokey planted the trees because the area had already been named Mount Lebanon, or if the introduction of the trees contributed to the name. Most people today believe the latter, that from the trees came the name.

Note to readers: If you live in a place in western Pennsylvania that is named for a natural feature, please email me at rcoxe@paconserve.org . Your submission could become part of the next series on the origin of names in Pennsylvania.