Fort Pitt

On November 26th, 1758, General Forbes reported the capture of the ruins and town of Fort Duquesne at the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers unite and form the Ohio; he dated his letters from "Duquesne, now Pitts-bourgh" (see page 59). General Forbes immediately began the erection of a new fort near the site of the old one and named it Fort Pitt, for the Prime Minister of England, who said, later: "I will never burn my fingers with an American stamp act." Fort Pitt was occupied in 1760, but was not finished until the summer of 1761, under Colonel Boquet. In the year 1764 Colonel John Campbell laid out that part of the city of Pittsburgh which lies between Water and Second Streets, and between Ferry and Market Streets, being four squares. "We have never been able to learn" (says Mr. Craig) "what authority Campbell had to act in this case. But the Penns afterwards legalized Campbell's act, at least, so far as not to change his plan of lots." In 1770 George Washington arrived at Pittsburgh on his way to the Kenawha. In his Journal of October 17th, he says: "Dr. Craig and myself, with Captain Crawford and others, arrived at Fort Pitt, distant from the crossing (Connellsville) forty-three and a half measured miles. We lodged in what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semples, who keeps a very good house of public entertainment. The houses, which are built of logs, and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela. The fort is built on the point between the rivers, but not so near the 'pitch of it' as Fort Duquesne stood. A moat encompasses it. The garrison consists of two companies of Royal Irish, commanded<??> Captain Edmonstone."

The census of Pittsburgh, taken Monday, July 21st, 1760, was as follows:

Present population, 238,667.

The sole existing monument of the British possession of "the Point" is the old Blockhouse, more correctly Redoubt--built by Colonel Boquet in 1764, although it is probable that the construction was begun in the fall of 1763, after Boquet had relieved Fort Pitt.

It is situated about three hundred yards from the Point, on what is now Fourth Street, and midway between the junction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny Rivers, where they meet and form the Ohio River.

The structure is built of brick, covered with old-fashioned clapboards, with a layer of double logs, through which are cut portholes, thirty-six in number, in two rows, one over the other, for effective work in case of necessity.

The building is 15 x 16 feet, 22 feet in height; twenty feet high from the floor to the eaves of the roof.

When the Proprietaries, John Penn and John Penn, Jr., determined to sell the land embraced in the Manor of Pittsburgh, Stephen Bayard and Isaac Craig purchased, in January, 1784, all the ground between Fort Pitt and the Allegheny River, supposed to contain about three acres. This is now known as the "Schenley property at the Point."

The late Colonel William A. Herron, agent of Mrs. Mary E. Schenley, of London, England, owner of the Blockhouse, presented to the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, at a regular meeting, April 3d, 1894, a deed for the Blockhouse, with a plot of ground 90 x 100 feet. Miss Denny, Regent of the Chapter, in behalf of the Daughters, received the gift.

Since then the work of restoring the Blockhouse and beautifying the grounds has been completed. A stockade fence has been placed around it for protection, and it is now open to visitors. It will serve as a museum for Colonial and Revolutionary Relics.

The inscription cut into the old stone tablet reads "1764." "Coll. Boquet."

In the city of Pittsburgh to-day there is little else than the names of hill-tops and streets to remind its residents of the great struggle which took place in its near vicinity, the results of which decided the Anglo-Saxon character of the country, changed the map of the world and shook the whole of Europe. The military career of George Washington began with the campaigns of the English to drive the French from the head-waters of the Ohio river. Mount Washington, Duquesne Heights, Grant Street, Forbes Street, Armstrong, Boquet, Dinwiddie, Penn Avenue, Braddock Road, and others, are perpetual reminders of the brave men who first made Pittsburgh.