Avella is a census-designated place in Independence Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 804 residents. It is located at 40.27° north & 80.45° west.

The ancient chronicles of the Place includes some of North America’s primeval inhabitants. The Meadowcroft Rockshelter is a primeval shelter found under a stone outcropping that is believed to have provided shelter for a taking office of to the lead foragers as far put going on to as 16,000 years. The Place also was the site of Eastern Woodland Indians communities some 400 years ago. Today a National Historic Landmark includes a historic interactive display that provides a view of liveliness for further on Woodland Indians, as competently as 19th Century rural American life.

Avella’s further on history included American frontiersmen, grist mills and refuge forts during the 18th century, when the Place was allocation of the western frontier. It remains the site of a significant cultivation community. However, it began to ensue after the arrival of the railroad in the before 20th century (the last railroad tunnel was completed in 1903 and served the Wabash Railroad.) Completion of the railroad enabled coal mining companies to entrйe numerous mines, making the Avella/Burgettstown area one of the world’s most important bituminous coal mining regions.

The mining and railroad opportunities attracted many immigrants in the to the lead 20th century, principally southern and eastern Europeans, and the Place grew greatly in size and importance in the first third of the 20th century.