Quaker Valley/ Sewickley (Avon, Ben Avon, Edgeworth: lease, buying a house, neighborhoods)

[Flamingo 1020]

What's it like living in Sewickley/ going to Quaker Valley schools? That's an area we are thinking of moving to. Do kids play together a lot outside of school? Are neighbors close? Is it a tight knit community? Do people bike and use the parks/playgrounds often? Is it easy for kids to get involved in school activities and teams or is it highly competitive? Are parents and kids generally kind including to new people?

[eschaton]

I don't know much about Quaker Valley, but I do know it covers 11 different municipalities, which are all small (thousands to hundreds - in one case less than 100 people). They also all vary in terms of feel. Sewickley proper is very walkable/semi urban, and economically fairly diverse. Leetsdale is basically a working-class mill town. Sewickley Hills and Sewickley Heights are very wealthy with lots of mansions and multi-acre estates. Edgeworth is more built up, with gridded neighborhoods with sidewalks, but somewhere like Bell Acres or Aleppo Township would be much more backwoodsy.

[Formerly Known As Twenty]

Originally Posted by Flamingo 1020

What's it like living in Sewickley/ going to Quaker Valley schools? That's an area we are thinking of moving to. Do kids play together a lot outside of school? Are neighbors close? Is it a tight knit community? Do people bike and use the parks/playgrounds often? Is it easy for kids to get involved in school activities and teams or is it highly competitive? Are parents and kids generally kind including to new people?

As someone who once looked into buying a house there and as someone whose partner grew up there, attended Q.V., and has raised/is raising children there, I can tell you a few things:

The school district is excellent to the point that more than a few of the well-heeled residents of Sewickley and the surrounding area who could choose to send their offspring to private schools choose to send them to Quaker Valley. Taxes might be high, but in terms of the school district, they are well worth it. Class sizes are small, the teachers and parents are heavily invested in doing their best by the students. My partner's children, while athletic, weren't/aren't involved in sports or other school-sponsored extracurricular activities so I don't have much information regarding such things.

The kids, particularly those who live within walking distance of the village, seem to run around in packs in much the same way as many of us who grew up in the 'seventies through the 'nineties remember doing when we were their ages. It's very much an area that's conducive to walking or biking around. The area's parks are actively used. The kids seem to hang out quite a bit at the gazebo that's in the center of town as well as at the other parks. Although not in Sewickley proper, the Sewickley Heights Borough Park is a gem. Great for dog walking, hiking, biking, horseback riding, picnicking, and just general enjoyment of the peace that's to be found in a natural environment.

Everyone seems to know everyone else. Even though I don't live there myself, because I've spent a fair amount of time the area, it's rare that I don't run into someone who I know when I'm in town. People seem to be generally open when it comes to general social interactions. My partner, being a Sewickley native, constantly runs into others who know him, his children, and/or his late parents. It's truly an old-fashioned sort of bedroom community. Not the most diverse of places, to be sure, but not closed off to outsiders either. His kids hang out with kids who are similar to them in upbringing, but sometimes different from them in terms of income. (There are some rather wealthy families who send their kids to Q.V. and/or attend the church that my partner and his family attend, so people of different income levels do tend to interact to a degree--especially the kids.)

General housing costs and taxes aside, I don't think that you could go wrong in choosing either the Sewickley area or the other area in which you expressed interest in another thread (Ben Avon/Avonworth S.D.).

[runpens1]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I don't know much about Quaker Valley, but I do know it covers 11 different municipalities, which are all small (thousands to hundreds - in one case less than 100 people). They also all vary in terms of feel. Sewickley proper is very walkable/semi urban, and economically fairly diverse. Leetsdale is basically a working-class mill town. Sewickley Hills and Sewickley Heights are very wealthy with lots of mansions and multi-acre estates. Edgeworth is more built up, with gridded neighborhoods with sidewalks, but somewhere like Bell Acres or Aleppo Township would be much more backwoodsy.

Sewickley Heights is probably the wealthiest and Sewickley Hills is a little bit more backwoodsy like Aleppo Township with a few more modern subdivisions. Bell Acres is a mix between Sewickley Heights and more backwoodsy rural areas of not as high of income. Edgeworth is prob a little more wealthy, it was called the highest educated town in the state at one point. All of the rest of the areas you described seemed right. It does seem like a very good school district.

[Knepper3]

We live down the way in Ben Avon but visit up Sewickley plenty (also my wife and I are agents so up that way to show/list homes at times). It is likely my favorite little small town and I agree the parks are hidden gems. We take the dog up to Sewickley Borough park at least once every week or two, great off lease park. While we do not live there everyone seems very engaged, they put on some good activities (even last year during restrictions) and have a decent farm market Saturday mornings.


It is a nicer area for sure, we do not really know anyone closely that lives there but anytime we've visit either shops or downtown or parks or whatever I never felt like we were intruding or not wanted.