Summer Hill

Summer Hill was originally part of Reserve Township.  In 1922, the City of Pittsburgh annexed the neighborhood on Halloween.  The area was mostly residential and not very populated until the late 1960’s, when the Urban Redevelopment Authority proposed a 51 acre residential area known as “Harpen Hilltop”.   The development was to have over 370 private single family homes and a high-rise with over 270 units for elderly residents of the area.  This was due mostly to construction of the I-279 corridor through to the northern suburbs of Pittsburgh that was dislocating residents of that area.  Earlier maps of the area do show it as “Harmen Hilltop” around 1974.  The name “Summer Hill” appears to have been adopted in the late 1970’s.

The area is bordered by Pittsburgh neighborhoods Observatory Hill and Northview Heights on the south and the Pittsburgh suburbs of Reserve Township and Ross Township to the north.