It was once called Hawk Ridge or New Lorne Settlement and some claim it was renamed Clairville for an early settler, Clairville Price who was a Post Master there 1905-1958, however, others believe it may have been named for the McLeary family who originally came from Scotland and settled in that location.
Later that year McLeary began teaching architecture at Carnegie Tech, where he remained until his untimely death, aged 48, following a fall from the roof of his studio near Confluence, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.