Father Pitt

Tag: Colonial Era

  • Montours Church, Robinson Township

    Montours Presbyterian Church

    The current building is only a century old, but the congregation of Montours Church—also spelled Montour’s or Montour, depending on where you look—was founded in 1778, and the adjoining cemetery is full of Revolutionary War veterans.

    Date stone: “Montours Presb. Church, 1778–1832–1924”
    Montours Presbyterian Church
    Montours Church
    Chapel

    A modern chapel built in 1978 is as tall as it is long, with a striking window at the far end.

    Interior of the chapel
    Window from the outside
    Montours Cemetery, chapel, and church
    Cemetery, chapel, church
    A bell cast in 1888

    A bell cast in Cincinnati in 1888 sits beside the church; it probably came from the older building that the 1924 church replaced.

    Van Duzen & Tift, Cincinnati

    “Van Duzen & Tift Cincinnati.”

    Buckeye Bell Foundry, 1888
    1888
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Samsung Galaxy A15 5G with Open Camera.

    “Buckeye Bell Foundry 1888.”

  • Fort Pitt Blockhouse, by Arsene Rousseau

    Fort Pitt Blockhouse
    From The Charette, December, 1928.

    This sketch was a winner in the Pittsburgh Architectural Club’s Summer Prize Sketch Competition. The artist was Arsene Rousseau (misspelled in the caption), who later became a successful architect in Youngstown.

    The sketch shows the situation of the Blockhouse as attractively as the artist can manage consistent with honesty. It had been restored to its past and present condition by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who maintained a little patch of green in the decaying warehouse and slum district of the Point. We see just a little of the Point Bridge in the background.

    For comparison’s sake, here is how the Blockhouse looked in 1887, before the ladies of the DAR got their hands on it:

    Fort Pitt Blockhouse in 1887
    From Fisher & Stewart’s Guide and Handbook of Pittsburgh and Allegheny, 1887.