Mount St. Peter Church
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Mount Saint Peter Roman Catholic Church
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| Location | 100 Freeport Road, New Kensington, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 40°33′46″N 79°45′42″W / 40.56278°N 79.76167°W |
| Area | 3.1 acres (1.3 ha) |
| Built | 1942 |
| Architect | Enos Cooke |
| Architectural style | Art Deco, International style |
| MPS | Aluminum Industry Resources of Southwestern Pennsylvania MPS |
| NRHP Reference # | 98000398 |
| Added to NRHP | May 5, 1998 |
Mount Saint Peter Church is a Roman Catholic Church at 100 Freeport Road in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. The church is located along the Allegheny River and is approximately 25 mi (40 km) north-east of the city of Pittsburgh within the Diocese of Greensburg.
The congregation was founded by Italian immigrants in the early 1900s and the current building was constructed by hand by parish members during World War II. The church was dedicated on July 4, 1944. In 1998, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
As of 2009, the congregation had approximately 5,000 members. The church is regionally known for its annual Festa Italiana, at which there is homemade Italian food, dancing, games for children, and gambling for adults. This festival is organized by volunteers from the church and takes place on the church grounds during the first weekend in August. The mission statement of the church emphasizes the congregation's Italian heritage.
The history of the Mount St. Peter parish is woven with the history of Alcoa and the emergence of New Kensington as an industrial city in the early twentieth century. In 1890, the Burrell Improvement Company considered the advantages of the level land south of its home in Lower Burrell. They named the area New Kensington, surveyed it, and laid out avenues, running parallel to the Allegheny River, and numbered streets running perpendicular to the river. Fourth and Fifth streets were the primary commercial streets. Once the land was surveyed and plotted, the company opened the land to bidding. The first large company to purchase land, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, acquired a 3.5-acre (14,000 m2) property by the riverfront. Other companies also acquired sites for commercial and industrial development: Adams Drilling, Goldsmith and Lowerburg, New Kensington Milling, New Kensington Brewing, Logan Lumber, and Keystone Dairy, to name a few.
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