Fort Pitt Blockhouse: A British Defensive Outwork Built in 1764
Site at a Glance
- Country
- United States
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- British
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Fort
On this page4 sections
History
The Fort Pitt Blockhouse is a defensive outwork in Point State Park, Pittsburgh, United States, built in 1764 as a redoubt, a fortification beyond a fort’s main defenses, of the British Fort Pitt. The fort stood at the Forks of the Ohio, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet.
Military and residential use
French control of the area had ended before construction began. Henry Bouquet, a Swiss-born officer serving Britain, initiated several redoubts around Fort Pitt’s outer walls. The blockhouse is the sole survivor of that group. In 1785, American officer and businessman Isaac Craig adapted it as a private residence. When Fort Pitt was demolished in 1792, the blockhouse remained standing because it was being used as a home, and it still served as a residence around 1893.
Preservation in place
In 1894, philanthropist Mary Schenley deeded the building to the Daughters of the American Revolution, a lineage organization for women descended from people who supported American independence. The gift was intended to preserve the blockhouse and its associated history and traditions.
In 1902, industrialist Henry Clay Frick, who had acquired the surrounding land, offered the organization $25,000 to move the blockhouse to Schenley Park. It refused. After lengthy litigation, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ruled in its favor, allowing the building to remain in place. The Fort Pitt Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution owns and operates it. The blockhouse is the sole surviving historic building in the Forks of the Ohio historic place and is a contributing property in a National Historic Landmark District.
Remains
The two-storey blockhouse retains much of the timber, brick, and stone used in its 1764 construction. It still stands on its original site and has not been demolished or completely rebuilt. It is described as the oldest surviving structure in Western Pennsylvania and the oldest authenticated structure west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Maps dated 1776 and 1795 show the blockhouse to the left of Fort Pitt’s wall in their depictions. The 1795 map labels it “Bouquet’s Redoubt,” while a map from 1900 depicts other buildings surrounding it.
