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 (or Mary) 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. A city real estate map from 1939 shows that Robert George Jackson maintained possession of much of the land, which was divided into subplots and named, "Ye Old Swissvale Farm" development. In 1940, Robert George Jackson, a former resident of England, began putting the lots of land on Windermere Drive up for sale to raise money for British bomb refugees during the early stages of World War II. The lots ranged in value from $1,200 to $2,000 apiece, or approximately $20,000 to $32,000 today when adjusted for inflation. Jackson's connection to England might also explain the origins for the name of the street, as Windermere, the largest natural lake in England, has been a popular place in England for holidays and summer homes since 1846, when the first railroad to area was built. Most of the homes on Windermere Drive were built after the war in the early 1950s, with many of the homes supported by steel produced by the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company in nearby Etna, Pennsylvania.
