The park land is the former estate of George Westinghouse, an American entrepreneur and engineer, and his wife Marguerite.

There, he developed some of his residential electric lighting technology, installing a generator and running cables to the main house, with wires that were left exposed on the interior walls, so as not to cut into the woodwork.

[2] Also there, Westinghouse invented methods to control and transmit natural gas for both industrial and residential consumers.

In the winter of 1883/1884, seeking a source of natural gas in his own "backyard," Westinghouse ordered drilling on his estate.

It initially produced a 100-foot flame that illuminated a mile-wide area to a brightness sufficient to read a newspaper.

The park's history began when Westinghouse, upon his death in 1914, bequeathed the North Point Breeze mansion to his son, who in turn sold the property in 1918 to the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania.

Both of his memoirs, Brothers and Keepers and Hoop Roots, use the park as a setting, as does his fictional Homewood Trilogy.

In 2006, archeological exploration found numerous small artifacts and reestablished the location of the long-vanished gas well.