New Kensington

New Kensington, city, Westmoreland county, western Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Allegheny River, and near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, just northeast of Pittsburgh. Established in 1891 by a group of Pittsburgh merchants interested in establishing a plant for reducing aluminum, it was laid out on the site of Fort Crawford (built during the American Revolutionary period) and named for Kensington in London. Incorporated as a borough in 1892, it absorbed neighbouring Parnassus in 1931 and became a city in 1934.

New Kensington’s manufactures include steel, glass, textiles, and metal and petroleum products. Although aluminum is no longer produced in the city, the Aluminum Company of America has an aluminium research-and-development centre there. The New Kensington campus of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State New Kensington) was opened in 1958. Pop. (2000) 14,701; (2010) 13,116.