Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill neighborhood began on the frontier of western Pennsylvania 250 years ago and developed into a vibrant urban community. Early settler John Turner, half-brother of renegade Simon Girty, survived capture by Native Americans and experienced firsthand the change from dangerous wilderness to established farming community.

French and British hunters and trappers roamed Squirrel Hill in the mid 1700s, but it wasn’t settled by Europeans until after the French and Indian War, when colonists from the British Isles and German-speaking nations trickled in, attracted by free land and plentiful game. They blazed claims to large tracts of land.

The growth and development of Squirrel Hill was initially focused on the riverfront along the Monongahela River. The first recorded house was built in 1760 by a soldier at nearby Fort Pitt, Colonel James Burd, at a place called Summerset on the Monongahela River. Squirrel Hill's next house was built by Ambrose Newton some time in the 1760s.

Squirrel Hill was originally part of Peebles Township. In 1868, it was officially annexed into the city of Pittsburgh. After the Civil War in 1869 a women’s college was established in the area of Fifth and Wilkins Avenues. It is now known as Chatham University.