Swissvale

Swissvale

Swissvale

Swissvale, located in Allegheny County just 9 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh, was named for a farmstead owned by James Swisshelm.  His father, John Swisshlem served under George Washington in the Revolutionary War, and camped at Valley Forge.

James married a noted abolitionist and activist, Jane Grey Cannon.  It was Jane who named the area Swissvale, as it overlooked the Monongahela River Valley.  Swisshelm Park, a neighborhood in the city of Pittsburgh, was also named for John Swisshelm.

In the industrial age of the mid to late 1800s, the suburb was the site of George Westinghouse’s Union Switch and Signal Company.

Vladimir Zworykin, one of the original inventors of television and a Russian immigrant who worked for Westinghouse lived in Swissvale.

The neighborhood today is known for it’s quiet tree-lined streets, many of which are still paved with the original block style from the early 20th century.

The feature picture above is of Trundle Manor, a local house of oddities well known in the area.

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