Sarah Jackson Black Community Center

Swisshelm Park is named after the Swisshelm family, which moved to the area in 1800. John Swisshelm was a revolutionary war veteran who owned a grist mill in the area. The Swisshelm name gained fame and prestige from John Swisshelm's daughter-in-law, Jane Grey Cannon Swisshelm, who was a teacher, business owner, prominent feminist, publisher of the Pittsburgh Saturday Visiter (an anti-slavery newspaper) and an organizer of the Underground Railroad. In 1850, Swisshelm made history as the first woman in the US Senate press gallery.

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A 35-acre portion of modern-day Swisshelm Park, including most of the area surrounding what is now Windermere Drive, was once owned by George Jackson, who died in 1854 and left the land to heirs. After the death of his last surviving children Mollie, who died in 1889, and Sarah Black, who died in 1912, a scandal erupted over the ownership of the land. Sarah left the land to a distant relative, Robert George Jackson, who was then sued in court by Alice Carey Jackson Cannon. Alice sued for partial ownership of the land on the grounds that she was the illegitimate daughter of Mollie Jackson and was therefore entitled to a portion of the estate. Although her true birth origins were kept secret from her through most of her childhood, Alice eventually learned that she was the child of Mollie and City Fire Bureau Chief, Samuel Evans. Having laid bare the secret origins of her birth and producing several witnesses who affirmed her account in court, the judge sided with Alice and awarded her half of the estate, then valued at 1.5 million dollars, in 1915. The former Jackson farm house still stands and the barn was converted to a community center still in use today, the Sarah Jackson Black Community Center.

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As an homage to the Swisshelm Park neighborhood, the Sarah Jackson Black Community Center has a plaque lists the names of the hundreds who fought in World War II from the small community, including seven who died in action.