McCandless 15237 Landscape Services

McCandless is a township with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,709 at the 2020 census. It is a northern suburb of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. McCandless is part of the North Allegheny School District and participates in the multi-municipality Northland Public Library. It has been ranked highly among Money Magazine's "Best Places to Live". The first European settler in McCandless Township was James Duff, who had purchased 400 acres (1.6 km2) in 1796. Farming increased in the area, and in 1849, meetings were held, presided over by Daniel Vogel, for the purpose of forming a local government. The township was founded in 1851 and called "Taylor Township". The area was incorporated in 1857 as a second class township and renamed "McCandless Township" in honor of District Judge Wilson McCandless. The published population was 1,482 persons. Between 1930 and 1950, the town more than doubled its population (from 2,653 to 6,488). By 1960, the population had redoubled (14,582) and has since doubled again. At the 2000 census, the number of households in the town was 11,159. Expanding population and traffic brought more diversified development into the area. McKnight Road was built in the mid 1950s and became the primary access into the north suburban areas. Retail and office uses occupy some of the McCandless segment of the McKnight corridor. The Community College of Allegheny County opened a campus in the area in 1972. A new mixed-use development acting as a town center, McCandless Crossing, was completed in 2016 and serves as a strip mall as well as an apartment complex and a townhome neighborhood. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 16.6 square miles (43 km2), of which 16.5 square miles (43 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2), or 0.66%, is water. The municipality lies on the Allegheny Plateau and is characterized by generally hilly terrain. A floodplain lies in the area of Pine Creek, which cuts a deep valley through the central portion of the township. McCandless has four borders, including Pine Township to the north, Hampton Township to the east, Ross Township to the south and the borough of Franklin Park to the west. Information obtained from the McCandless Wiki and the Town Of McCandless pages.