In 1753, George Washington, then 21, was working for the Virginia Colony's British governor and hiked through what is now Cranberry Township along the Venango Path.

The commander rejected the order, precipitating the French and Indian War, which the British and their colonies ultimately won but at a cost.

Although the Iroquois, the Delaware, and Seneca nations had hunted and fished in the Cranberry area for centuries, the first European settlers, Mathew and William Graham, arrived in 1796.

Over the following decades, the Graham family and Samuel Duncan, another early settler, opened a tavern, a distillery, a sawmill, and a grist mill.

Although small stores, taverns, mills and implement-making shops had operated in Cranberry for years, its development did not really accelerate until the Pennsylvania Turnpike's western section was completed in 1951, with an exit at Route 19, Cranberry's main arterial road, followed by the 1966 opening of I -79, which crossed the Turnpike at the township's southern end.

It was soon followed by other business and light industrial park facilities catering to companies seeking inexpensive land with easy highway access.

Cranberry Township also contains several smaller, unincorporated census-designated places, including Fernway and Fox Run, neighborhoods whose names continue to appear on some online maps.

[10] Ordinances affecting its commercial growth have been enacted under guidance from comprehensive plans adopted by the township's board of supervisors in 1977, 1995, and 2009.

Beyond its emergence as a major regional retail and hospitality center, the primary engine of Cranberry's local economy has been its growing family of corporate, industrial and research organizations.

[10] Cranberry is home to major operations of McKesson Automation-Aseynt, PPG Architectural Coatings, Alcoa-Kwaneer, MSA Safety, Gatan, Giant Eagle and Westinghouse Electric Company.

More than 3,000 people work at the campus at Cranberry; its business is focused on the design, construction, maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear power plants worldwide.

In August 2015, the Pittsburgh Penguins and UPMC opened a new hockey practice and sports medicine facility in Cranberry near the PA 228/I-79 interchange.

As of December 2018, Cranberry Township continues to expand with the new additions of restaurants and other store fronts to the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex area along with a new hotel.

Access to the northern terminus of Interstate 279, an important artery that serves as a direct expressway to Downtown Pittsburgh from the north, is located 6 mi (10 km) south of the township.