Destruction of Historic Bastion Commences
"That's It, Fort Pitt"


Visit the Fort Pitt Preservation Society web site

Paladin speaks out on the Fort Pitt Bastion issue
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 19, 2006)

ATTN: Riverlife Task Force
Paladin and other concerned citizens join with the
New York State F&I Commission in the following plea:

July 25, 2006 Draft Resolution of the New York State
French and Indian War 250th Anniversary Commemorative Commission
Relative to the Planned Burial of the Fort Pitt Music Bastion

WHEREAS, the By Laws of the New York State French and Indian War 250 th Anniversary Commemorative Commission tasks it to “encourage and facilitate other actions which increase awareness of and appreciation for the F&I War” and

WHEREAS, the Commission realizes that other states and Canada also are commemorating aspects of this conflict within their borders where it also took place, and

WHEREAS, the Commission is interested in seeing this story exhibited in its many forms to include, but not limited to, historic artifacts and remains; historic sites; and other sources and features that will allow the appreciation and understanding of the F&I War,

NOW, THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED:

That the New York State French and Indian War 250 th Anniversary Commemorative Commission regrets and opposes the intended burial of the Music Bastion archaeological remains of Ft. Pitt to accommodate demands for non-historical themed public programming in Point State Park, and further requests that such plans be reconsidered to recognize and respect the 250 th Anniversary of the French and Indian War and the 250 th Anniversary of the initial building of Fort Pitt in 2009.

______________________________________________

Events have continued to unfold regarding the imminent destruction of the Fort Pitt Music Bastion.
To justify the demolition, Pittsburgh's Riverlife Task Force has asserted that the bastion is a "reconstruction" that is not historically accurate (see article links below). Richard Lang was
crew chief on the project that excavated remnants of Fort Pitt in 1964-65, working with
legendary historian Charles Morse Stotz and Carnegie Museum Associate Director
James L. Swauger. Mr. Lang believes that the the position of the Riverlife Task Force is incorrect.
He stated for clarification on Tuesday, July 25, 2006:

"The Music Bastion is NOT a Reconstruction (as claimed by Riverlife Task Force), but rather a Restoration.

"The fort walls are 'short' because their upper portions were planed off when streets and rail yards etc. were put in place. The restored walls stand to roughly the height of the surviving wall stubs of the Gate Curtain and Music Bastion's SE arm -that is, to more than half the length of the masonry restoration, with the remainder (including the earthen part) being atop the remaining footings and foundation where present (which is just about everywhere).

"A photo from the 1965 excavation republished by the Post-Gazette in Patricia Lowry's recent article about the Music Bastion [photo seen at right] clearly shows 3-4 feet of standing, massive (7-foot-thick), stone and mortar revetment wall of original Fort with the brick facing (up to about 2'4" thick at its base) surviving in the area of the entrance (i.e., "Gate") and to the south. [As seen in the photo, a workman stands on the revetment.] Brick and coign stones also stood at the intersective point of the SE and E walls of the Bastion.

"Most importantly, designer/architect Bill Mullin had both original GC brick and reproduction bricks cemented onto the original stone/mortar wall (or substitute where absent). Replica footing stones and all bricks rest on a concrete pad about 6" thick and 1.5 foot wide running the length of the restored rampart scarp. The pad rests on the old Fort footings and foundation.

"As previously noted, C. M. Stotz's little 'DaVinci Code' properly indicates the actual masonry wall height in the height of the adjacent S retaining wall of the S path entering the Park, and gives a sense of actual moat width (40-70') in the width of the paved moat segment (10") plus that of the moat's (external) slope apex (33-49') = 43-59'.   

"Restoration is rehabilitation of an existing thing to its previous condition; reconstruction is the remaking of a thing that had existed. There is a tremendous difference between these terms within the realm of preservation law."

Richard Lang



Recent Press:

Is it taps for Point State Park's Music Bastion?

Some protest plan to fill Point State Park trench

In Pittsbugh, the old saying, "That's it, Fort Pitt," has
come to mean that a task has been completed, or,
"Case closed." Now, it seems that it's Case Closed
for remains of Fort Pitt itself.

A public-private partnership that includes the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the Riverlife Task Force and a handful of Pittsburgh foundations is seeking to cover over an excavated and partially reconstructed bastion of Fort Pitt, thereby removing from view, study, and interpretation the area's oldest remaining structure related to British control of the "Forks of the Ohio." This group held unadvertised "public" meetings (local historians and educators could therefore not comment), developed a plan, secured the approval of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, and made public announcement of the impending changes all based on a falsehood, namely that the bastion is not worthy of protection. Ironically, this consortium intends to bury Pittsburgh's past just in time for the 250th anniversary of the city's founding. "Pittsborough" began as the very structure they now intend to bury--Fort Pitt.

But the bastion is not misplaced or "in the wrong location" at all, as has been asserted in a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. According Richard W. Lang, who participated in the excavation and in preparations for the restoration:

"What is there at the Music Bastion is properly sited and accurate for what it is--data based restoration designed by the foremost authority on the forts at the Forks--within the limits imposed by the site and multiuse philosophy, and demonstrating an existing high level of accuracy. About 8 feet of original fort wall and foundation are there (in excellent condition, i.e., not fragile and in need of burial), so there are future potentials for even greater historical correctness based on incorporation of the original walls (independent of whether it ever physically comes to anything), in addition to  an existing high level of accuracy."

Fort Pitt in American History

Some feel that Fort Pitt never had much historical value. It inspired no Star Spangled Banner, like Fort McHenry. It began no great war, like Fort Sumter. But its history is rich, and its roots bigger than life. The original plans for a great British fort at the Forks of the Ohio were found on Braddock's Field, as Gen. Braddock's famous and talented engineer, Harry Gordon, would have been the one charged with building the massive structure had the Forks and French Fort Duquesne been taken in 1755. But they weren't. Rather, the detailed plans were part of Braddock's captured papers. Capt. Beaujeu's wild attack and its improbable success saved the Forks for the French until November 1758, when the advance of the army of Gen. Forbes caused French Capt. DeLigneris to destroy Fort Duquesne at the site and withdraw.

The construction of Fort Pitt began in September 1759 and was mostly complete by the spring of 1760. It stood as the Ohio Country's most formidable symbol of British might until 1772, when it was decommissioned. In that time it withstood a siege by Pontiac, served as a source of shelter against Native aggression, and became a driver of commerce as the town of Pittsburgh grew.

The fort itself was grand, as noted by author Walter O'Meara in Guns at the Forks (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1965):

"Because weather, burrowing animals, grazing cows, and small boys digging for worms quickly erode an earten rampart, those of Fort Pitt were protected in two ways. On the landward side they were supported by heavy brick retaining walls, with the tips of the bastions further reinforced by cut stone. On the less-vulnerable river sides, the walls and bastions were sodded, i.e. covered with squares of turf laid perpendicularly to the slope of the wall and secured with long wooden pins...A sentry walking his post on the high, windy ramparts of Fort Pitt looked down on a kind of walled city inside the great pentagon of earth and masonry. Around the central parade, indeed, could be housed from 700 to 1,000 men. Two-storied barracks--one of brick 190 feet long, and two others of frame construction--provided lodgment for the men; another quartered the officers. The commandant's house was the show-place of the establishment--a fine brick building with cut-stone steps."

O'Meara here describes what is today so easy to overlook: Fort Pitt was an American symbol of the great wars between England and France. In the middle of nowhere stood this mighty fortress put there because Great Britain was perpetually in conflict with France, and who knew when another war would break out, and when 1,000 King's Regulars might need to be dispatched in a hurry to the colonial frontier to face an invading French army.

Fort Pitt Under Siege by Robert Griffing shows how the "walled city inside the great pentagon of
earth and masonry" looked in 1763, at the time of Pontiac's Uprising. Copyright Paramount Press.

George Washington visited in the autumn of 1770. He had been among the first explorers to see the Forks in 1753 when it was virgin forest, and now described the British Pittsburgh he must have inspected in some detail based on this account from his papers:

"We lodged in what is called the town, distant about three hundred yards from the fort, at one Semple's, who keeps a very good house of public entertainment. The houses, which are built of logs and ranged in streets, are on the Monongahela, and I suppose may be about twenty in number and inhabited by Indian traders. The fort (Pitt) is built in the point between the Allegheny and Monongahela, but not so near the pitch of it as Fort Duquesne stood. It is five-sided and regular, two of which near the land are of brick--the others, stockade. A moat encompasses it."

Note: The site of the settlement where Washington lodged is on what is today Fort Pitt Boulevard in downtown Pittsburgh, a short strip of shops and offices above and parallel to the Monongahela River.

On his visit, Washington dined with the officers of Fort Pitt; officers who would soon be recalled as the fort was ordered demolished and the land sold. Why? Perhaps because the British were trying to appease the Indians, who saw in the fort a threat; perhaps to remove a potential "rebel" stronghold in case the upstart colonials were to take up arms against the Crown. But the history of Fort Pitt doesn't end here. Lord Dunmore, the provincial governor of Virginia, believed the Forks belonged to his province and ordered Fort Pitt to be occupied. At this time some Indian tribes were staging an uprising, and white settlers were retaliating. Dunmore ordered 1,200 Virginians to march from Fort Pitt down the Ohio to fight the Natives, but Gen. Andrew Lewis (one of Washington's officers in the French & Indian War) defeated the Indians at the Battle of Point Pleasant, thus ending the short Lord Dunmore's War.

Next came the American Revolution. From the beginning of this conflict to the end, Fort Pitt was held by the American colonials. It saw no major action but was garrisoned throughout the war. Only after independence had been won would it fall into disrepair and crumble to nothing, and then be slowly gobbled up by the growing commercial center of Pittsburgh.

Fort Pitt Today

As of this writing, in February 2006, two remnants of Fort Pitt can be found at Point State Park. One is the "blockhouse," dated 1764 and erected by Col. Henry Bouquet, a leading British military figure of the day. The other is the unearthed (in the 1960s) and partially restored Music Bastion noted by George Washington (...two of which near the land are of brick...). The brick wall, next to which ran the moat, sits well below ground level in what appears from even close by to be a wide, deep, and pointless ditch. It is marked by a bronze plaque, but barely interpreted at all. The fact that the walls are so far underground is fascinating in itself, and speaks not only to the changes to the land made by man, but also the power of river flooding, through which nature is always seeking to resculpt the earth.

The wall also represents other things. For example, it means that way, way down there, below the current Point State Park, is the original footprint of Fort Pitt, and presumably all the walls, and all the foundations of the brick buildings, and thousands or millions of artifacts from the time. A recent archaeological investigation beneath the floor of the Blockhouse yielded a remarkable horde or artifacts.

The restoration of the Music Bastion was led by Charles Morse Stotz (1899-1985), a visionary historian to whom all interpreters of French & Indian War history owe an enormous debt. Stotz was by profession an architect specializing in the preservation and restoration of historic buildings. During his career, he worked on the preservation of 40 Western Pennsylvania historic structures or groupings, including Old Economy in Ambridge, the Bradford House in Washington, PA, and the reconstruction of Fort Ligonier. He wrote two landmark books of the period, Drums in the Forest: Decision at the Forks [and] Defense in the Wilderness (Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, 1958), and Outposts of the War for Empire: the French and English in Western Pennsylvania, Their Armies, Their Forts, Their People, 1749-1764 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1985). These works stand with the likes of Montcalm and Wolfe and Crucible of War as essentials for researchers of the Seven Years' War. When one considers the legitimacy of the Music Bastion restoration, one must take into account the meticulous nature of every Stotz work. The most cursory exploration of Outposts affirms his dedication to accurate history.

Now a local Pittsburgh partnership, with the blessing of the state, seeks to "ditch the ditch." According to their Point State Park Master Plan, the park is a community greenspace, and the ditch inhibits an already cramped area at concerts, fireworks displays, the annual Three Rivers Arts Festival, and other events. It's also dangerous, especially at night. (When restored, light fixtures were included in the moat, but lights for safety purposes have never been installed.) When a quarter-million people gather at Point State Park, as they did on February 7, 2006 to honor the victorious Pittsburgh Steelers, the great Music Bastion trench can prove to be nothing short of a great nuisance. As one rational Pittsburgh resident and fellow lover of history put it, "Rocks in a ditch are bad, dead history...I honestly believe that history will not be served by impeding access to Point State Park." And in fact, the dispassionate lack of interpretation of the site does beg for the ditch in the middle of the park to be filled in, the way anyone would correct a mistake in the landscape.

Richard Lang describes an alternate plan to the bulldozing--interpreting the site based on its historical significance:

"Part of my experience is in exhibits and public interpretation. My brother Russell (former Curator of Exhibits at the old Pittsburgh Zoo, and retired Exhibit Specialist at the new Zoo) and I visited the three bastion sites and block house last Saturday to refresh my memory and evaluate things on the ground. We all agree (and the Riverlife Task Force seems to as well) that current park interpretation of the fort is inept.

"Just off the top of my head I'd say the Music Bastion needs a forward viewing area (on the Hilton side where the state historical markers are you can't even tell it is there until you nearly walk into it) with full map of the fort and/or art piece (like Stotz's illustration in Drums in the Forest -as one possibility) showing how the MB fits into plan of the fort (as well as what the bloody fort looked like and how the 3 bastions relate--which you can't really tell from extramural signage, etc.--Griffing's partial rendering of the fort in 1763 being all there is outside the confines of the museum and block house. Bastion portions should be emphasized and shown in a detail with the 5 defensive elements (moat, masonry wall cum foundation, lower brick rampart, etc.) represented and identified. Basic historical statement is needed as well as one of the function of this particular bastion.

"A similar interpretive panel should be found near the steps leading down to the moat (and possibly within the moat on the Hilton side)."

Mr. Lang urges that all stand down until original photographic slides be examined (if they exist) and results of the excavation, maps, and blueprints be studied. Other concerned Pittsburghers share this view, as does Paladin. Unfortunately, plans are moving ahead quickly. In the light of day, the people of the Pittsburgh region should decide what is to become of their history. We're not sure that the charitable foundations who have contributed to the Point State Park renovation project understand the issues at stake here. In improving the park for the future of the city, is it necessary to bury its past? Perhaps so, for the common good, but this decision should only be reached after a full airing of the facts.

Mr. Lang's most cautionary warning concerns the filling of the Music Bastion cut in the earth:

"God knows what they will actually do in the process of in-filling and utility trenching, etc. I've seen some real disasters occur once the dozers and backhoes are unleashed, even when preservation was intended."

Part of the Music Bastion, seen below, in a photo taken Saturday, February 18, 2006. A grand, intact,
original stone wall sits below the brick and awaits excavation, unless that is, it's buried. Light fixtures--
lights that were never installed in the moat area--can se seen at right.

NOTE: If you wish to take action on this issue, please visit www.SaveFortPitt.org,
or direct your comments to:

Barbara Franco, Executive Director
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
300 North Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Michael DiBerardinis
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
717.772.9084

Greg Shrum
State Parks
717.787.6674

The Honorable Wayne D. Fontana
Pennsylvania State Senator
930 Brookline Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15226-2106
phone 412.344.2551
phone 717.787.5300

The Honorable Jake Wheatley, Jr.
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
2015-2017 Centre Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
phone 412.471.7760
phone 717.783.3783
fax 412.471.8056

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