Latrobe was the birthplace and childhood home of children's television personality Fred Rogers and former professional golfer Arnold Palmer.

[3] In 1852, Oliver Barnes (a civil engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad) laid out the plans for the community that was incorporated in 1854 as the Borough of Latrobe.

Barnes named the town for his best friend and college classmate, Benjamin Henry Latrobe II, who was chief engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

(His father, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, was the architect who rebuilt the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., after the War of 1812.)

[4] In 2004, the National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) certified Latrobe as the birthplace of the banana split.

Then, documents surfaced showing that Pudge Heffelfinger, a former three-time All-American from Yale, was employed to play guard for the Allegheny Athletic Association three years earlier.

[10] On November 18, 1905, Latrobe defeated the Canton Bulldogs, which later became a founding member, and two-time champion, of the National Football League, 6–0.

[11] Aside from Brallier, the Latrobe Athletic Association included several of the era's top players, such as Ed Abbaticchio, Charles Barney, Alf Bull, Jack Gass, Walter Okeson, Harry Ryan, Doggie Trenchard, and Eddie Wood, and manager Dave Berry.

The Latrobe Brewing Company, founded in 1939, was one of the largest breweries in the United States and the maker of Rolling Rock beer.

After this incident, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection urged Latrobe residents to research whether their properties are undermined and consider applying for mine subsidence insurance.

It has a hot-summer humid continental climate (Dfa) and average monthly temperatures range from 28.9 °F in January to 72.0 °F in July.

[17] Latrobe shares borders with the townships of Derry to the north, northwest, east, and southeast, and Unity to the west and southwest.