Roseto, Pennsylvania

Roseto is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. Roseto is located in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. It is part of Pennsylvania's Slate Belt.

The population of Roseto was 1,653 at the 2000 census.

History

The town is named for the village of Roseto Valfortore in Italy. It was largely settled by Germans and Italians employed at the numerous local slate quarries. The Wind Gap and Delaware Railroad opened a line through the town in 1883. It was operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey until 1905, after which it was merged into the Lehigh and New England Railroad, which abandoned the line in 1955. It was incorporated as a borough in 1912.

Roseto is known in the fields of sociology and cardiology for the Roseto effect, wherein the close-knit community exhibited half the national average rate of heart disease in the mid-20th century. This finding helped to establish that stress can contribute to heart disease.

Geography

Roseto is located at 40°52′50″N 75°13′2″W / 40.88056°N 75.21722°W / 40.88056; -75.21722 (40.880576, -75.217345).