page_title: Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh)
section_title: Public schools
hierarchical_section_title: Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh) / Education / Public schools
caption_attribution_description: Allderdice High School, Pittsburgh, PA
context_page_description: Squirrel Hill is a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The city officially divides it into two neighborhoods, Squirrel Hill North and Squirrel Hill South, but it is almost universally treated as a single neighborhood.
context_section_description: The Free Public School Act of 1834 ordered school districts not only to establish free schools but also to establish them in townships outside city limits. This affected Squirrel Hill, since it was part of Peebles Township at the time.
  John Turner, who never learned to read or write but became a wealthy landowner, left land and money to the community to build a school when he died in 1844 at the age of 83. It was called Squirrel Hill School and was located on Bigelow Street at Hazelwood Avenue in the Greenfield neighborhood. Its successor closed in 1915 and was replaced by Roosevelt School, named for then-president Theodore Roosevelt. It closed in 1957. It was replaced by John Minadeo Elementary School, named for a ninth-grade school crossing guard who gave his life to save a group of young students in the path of a runaway car near Gladstone School.
  After Peebles Township was annexed by Pittsburgh in 1868, Squirrel Hill became the Colfax School District, named for Schuyler Colfax, who was Vice President of the United States under President Ulysses S. Grant. The district had five numbered schools. Colfax No. 1 was located at Phillips Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard. Today, it is Pittsburgh Colfax K-8. Colfax No. 2 was on Beechwood Boulevard near the intersection of Saline Street and Hazelwood Avenue near Browns Hill Road. It closed in 1907 but was reopened in 1916 as the Roosevelt School Annex when Roosevelt became overcrowded. The annex closed in 1939. Colfax No. 3, on Forward Avenue, became Forward Avenue School and was named after Walter Forward, who was appointed U.S. Secretary of the Treasury by President John Tyler. The school was torn down in 1923, but its retaining wall still exists under the Parkway East bridge over Saline Street. Colfax No. 4, at Whipple and Commercial streets, became Swisshelm School and was named for Jane Swisshelm, a writer and abolitionist. Colfax No. 5, at Solway and Wightman streets, became Wightman School and was named for Thomas Wightman, owner of the Thomas Wightman Glass Company. Wightman operated as a school from 1897 to 1980 and since then has been used as a community center building and the home of Carriage House Children's Center. The building underwent extensive restoration and remodeling to make it one of only two older buildings in Western Pennsylvania to have LEED Gold certification.
  Two other public elementary schools existed in Squirrel Hill. Brown School was built near the Monongahela River in 1888 on land donated by the Brown family. It closed in 1932. H.B. Davis School, named for a principal of the Frick Training School for Teachers, was located on Phillips Avenue. It opened in 1931 and closed in 1980.
  Squirrel Hill's Taylor Allderdice High School opened in 1927. It was named for the president of the National Tube Company, who was also a member of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Education, which was created in 1911 and given jurisdiction over all the public schools in the city, including those in Squirrel Hill.
caption: Taylor Allderdice High School
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