Haysville Borough, incorporated in 1902 and with a population of 81 in 2020, is the least populated municipality in Allegheny County. It occupies 0.3 of a square mile and borders Aleppo, Glenfield, Glen Osborne and the Ohio River.
The borough was named for Captain John Hay, who was born in Baltimore in 1796 and moved to the area in 1836. A flint glass manufacturer, he purchased a 260 acre tract called Burgundia from his father- in-law, on which he built a small inn – the Union Hotel – on the hill above the present-day intersection of River Road and Ohio River Boulevard. This hotel and two that followed became known for their curative chalybeate waters, and Haysville became an official stop on the Pittsburgh Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. All of these hostelries were lost to fire. In 1868 R. E. Robinson, President of the railroad, built the Ellanova Springs Hotel, which burned in 1882. Its riverside park, once accessed by a pedestrian bridge that crossed the Beaver Road and the railroad tracks, continued to be enjoyed by the public until the property was bought by the Sterling Varnish Company in the late 1880s.
Pictures: Haysville Panorama, c.1925
