Hickory Heights is a neighborhood in the South Hills of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It is located in the South Fayette school district and is serviced by the Bridgeville post office. It is located just south of the intersection of Route 50 and Interstate 79 at. The Hickory Heights neighborhood has an approximate total area of, all of it land. Its average elevation is roughly above sea level.
Community overview
Although Hickory Heights is linked to the communities of Bridgeville and South Fayette, the neighborhood is geographically separate because of its elevated location spread around the Hickory Heights golf course. The autonomous neighborhood has a community swimming pool, central golf course, horse stables, a sportsman's club and a farmers market. The rolling hills and scenic views provide some of the nicest suburban scenery in Pennsylvania.
History
Around 1770 General George Washington acquired a parcel of land in Western Pennsylvania known as Millers Run. Some falsely claim that this property includes Hickory Heights, but it was actually several miles away in what is now Mt. Pleasant Township, Washington County. This property was given to Washington by his neighbor John Posey in exchange for the forgiveness of debt. George Washington was essentially an absentee landlord who treated the property in the wildwestern frontier of Pennsylvania as an investment. In September 1784 he traveled to Miller's Run to survey his holdings, and discovered a population of Scotch-Irish squatters residing on his land. Over the next few years Washington methodically went about initiating legal proceedings to evict them. He eventually won a judgment against the group. In 1796 Washington attempted to sell the property, but the sale collapsed when the purchasing agent defaulted on the mortgage. Washington then held onto the property until his death. Because of the extended legal proceedings, it is very clear that this property consumed quite a bit of Washington's time. It is clearly documented that he visited the property at least once, but he was not active in the regular maintenance of the area. Until the 1980s, most of Hickory Heights was quiet farm land. The development of the Hickory Heights Golf Course and associated housing developments around the course formed the original nucleus of the current neighborhood.
Education
Hickory Heights is served by the South Fayette School District. The public high school for the area is South Fayette High School. In 2006 the South Fayette Middle School was named a No Child Left BehindBlue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education. It is one of only six public schools in Pennsylvania that year to earn this award. In 2005, the school earned the Charles Gray Award for Excellence in Arts Education. On the 2006 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment results, South Fayette's 6th-grade students ranked first in the state in Math ; and the 5th, 6th and 7th-grade students ranked first in Allegheny County in Math. South Fayette’s 6th-grade students also ranked first in Allegheny County in Reading. The district was named an “Outperformer” in 2007 by Standard & Poor’s for their exemplary achievements over the past three years. The high school is also highly ranked with a strong academic record, solid sport programs, and a well known marching band which performs throughout the country. Local universities include University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and others.
