Old Colonel Bouquet was proud enough of his little blockhouse that he carved his name in the stone above the door. Or rather he had one of his minions do it, because officers don’t have to do things like that for themselves.
The rafters in the roof are almost all original. When the fort became superfluous in the late 1700s, the little building was sold off and ended up a private dwelling.
Eventually the Daughters of the American Revolution bought the place and stripped away the later accretions. Now the blockhouse looks much as it did when Col. Bouquet was in charge.
Bouquet, by the way, may have been proud enough to put his name on the blockhouse; but finding that he had the honor of naming the fort and the little trading town that instantly appeared beside it, he chose to name them both after William Pitt, prime minister at the time, who was largely credited with the British victories against France all over the world.
7 responses to “Fort Pitt Blockhouse”
My son is doing a report on The block house and we need to know how and why the site got its name . If you could help that would be great.
Thankyou
Mimi an Ashton
A “blockhouse” is a common kind of fortification, and you can see a few more of them in this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockhouse
“Fort Pitt” and the town of Pittsburgh that grew up around it were named in 1758 for William Pitt, who was prime minister of England. This book gives a good account of the founding of Fort Pitt and Pittsburgh itself. It’s a good book to cite in a report, and you can see the whole book on line without having to go to a library.
If you can get downtown to visit the blockhouse itself, there’s often a volunteer there who’s a professional archaeologist and loves to talk about Fort Pitt.
Good luck on the report. You can have a lot of fun digging through history in Pittsburgh.
[…] building in the English colonies west of the Alleghenies. That date would make it older than the Fort Pitt Blockhouse by eight years. Father Pitt tends to doubt the authenticity of the date; but there is no doubt that […]
[…] of the 1700s preserved in Schenley Park. There are not very many buildings of that era left: the Fort Pitt Blockhouse, the Neill Log House, this cabin, and possibly the Old Stone Tavern are the only ones Father Pitt […]
[…] The Fort Pitt Blockhouse […]
[…] The Fort Pitt Blockhouse […]
[…] in Schenley Park. There are not very many buildings of that era left within city limits: the Fort Pitt Blockhouse, the Neill Log House, this cabin, and possibly the Old Stone Tavern are the only ones Father […]