About The Wallspring Dispatch

The Wallspring Dispatch is a small weekly paper for Aspinwall, Pennsylvania: borough council news, school notices, road work, openings and closings, and what's happening around town this week. A section called Down the Road keeps an eye on our neighbors along the river corridor: Sharpsburg, Etna, O'Hara and Fox Chapel.

Why "The Wallspring"?

Aspinwall was incorporated on December 28, 1892, carved out of O'Hara Township. The town takes its name from Annie Aspinwall, a New Yorker who in 1890 sold 155 acres along the Allegheny River to Henry Warner, who laid out the streets and homes that became the borough. [1]

The name itself is much older. Aspinwall is an English place-name from Lancashire, built from two Old English words: æspen, "growing with aspen trees," and wælla, "stream." [2] Aspinwall, in other words, means something like aspen stream, a fitting name for a town on the banks of a river.

Since moving here, I call it "the Wall." Put the nickname together with the old meaning and you get the Wallspring: the source of the stream, and a play on wellspring, a source of plenty. That's what we hope this paper can be: a small, steady source of news from the Wall.

Why "Dispatch"?

A dispatch is news sent out, and every week this one goes out to readers' inboxes. The name also tips its hat to the Pittsburgh Dispatch, which served the city from 1846 to 1923 and where the pioneering reporter Nellie Bly got her start. [3]

The town that pride built

Aspinwall's motto is "The Town That Pride Built." [1] We'd like to think a weekly paper is a small way of adding to it.

How it's made

The Dispatch is put together each week by a small set of scripts that gather public news and notices, and an AI model, run locally, that sorts and summarizes them. Every news item links back to its original source, so you can always check the details there; tips and classifieds come straight from neighbors. It isn't reviewed by an editor before it goes out, so mistakes will happen; if you spot one, please let us know.

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