Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Hermitage, PA

Hermitage is a city in western Mercer County and, with 16,230 residents at the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Mercer County.

Hermitage was first settled in 1796 and grew out of Hickory Township, which was formed in the early 1830s from parts of Shenango and Pymatuning townships — which is why the local high school is still called Hickory High School.

Voters approved changing the community's name from Hickory to Hermitage on November 4, 1975, and the new name took effect on January 2, 1976.

Hermitage became a third-class city on January 1, 1984, after voters approved reclassification the previous November.

Covering about 29.6 square miles, Hermitage is one of the largest cities in Pennsylvania by land area, yet its residents live at a low density of only about 550 people per square mile.

Hermitage has about 7,700 households according to Census Bureau QuickFacts, averaging roughly two people per household, and more than 70 percent of its homes are owner-occupied.

On January 1, 2024, the neighboring borough of Wheatland merged into Hermitage, adding about 0.87 square miles and roughly 585 residents to the city.

Twenty years earlier, in 2004, a much bigger plan to merge Hermitage with Sharon, Farrell, Sharpsville and Wheatland into a single 'Shenango Valley City' was put to voters and defeated.

Hermitage is home to Buhl Park, a 270-acre public park gifted to the Shenango Valley by steel magnate Frank H. Buhl and his wife Julia, which opened in 1915 and includes Lake Julia, named for Mrs. Buhl.

Buhl Park's golf course, open since 1914, is the only free golf course in the United States — no green fees are ever charged, just as Frank Buhl intended.