Fort Pitt Block House

The Fort Pitt Block House, a pentagonal-shaped structure of brick and stone, was built in 1764 as an outlying redoubt of Fort Pitt at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers in what is today Pittsburgh. The British constructed Fort Pitt in 1759–61, after gaining control of the Ohio River valley from the French. The fort was built using the star-shaped, bastion trace design that was popular for military fortifications of the period, with the block house being constructed as part of a later repair and expansion campaign intended to enhance the fortification.

Fort Pitt assured a British presence in the region in the final years of the French and Indian War (1754–63). The fortification came under siege during Pontiac’s War of 1763, as part of a series of attacks by Native Americans on British forts and settlements with the intention of driving settlers out of the territory. During the siege, the fort served as a haven for local settlers.

In 1772 the British decommissioned and sold the fort, and the block house became a trading post. During Dunmore’s War in the fall of 1774, the fort briefly served as a staging area for Lord Dunmore’s Virginia militia forces as part of their advance down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Great Kanawha River (in present-day West Virginia) to quell the conflict between the Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo tribes over expanding British settlement.

During the Revolutionary War, the fort became the western headquarters for the Continental Army. Troops garrisoned there were to protect the western border from British forces stationed at Fort Detroit and develop alliances with Native American tribes in the region to support the United States. Following the Revolution, the United States Army maintained a small garrison at the fort until 1792, when it was officially decommissioned. Despite having a military presence, the fort property was again sold in 1785, and the demolition of the fortification began. One of the buyers, Maj. Isaac Craig and his family, used the block house as a residence until 1789.

The conversion of the block house to residential use ensured its survival as the surrounding area was developed. By 1830 Pittsburgh’s point had developed into an urban setting with a grid pattern of streets and numerous lots. In the 1840s the block house had become a multifamily tenement. As the area continued to develop, the neighborhood became one of the most densely populated and economically distressed areas of the city with a mix of tenement houses and industrial buildings.

In 1894 the block house was gifted to the Fort Pitt Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR opened the building as a museum in July 1895. Despite intense pressure to sell the building to make way for continued development, the DAR remained steadfast in preserving the building, as most of the surrounding structures were being demolished. By 1910 the block house remained on a lone parcel that had been subsumed into the large freight yard of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Nevertheless, the DAR continued to give tours of the building and even constructed a house on the property for an on-site caretaker.

In 1960 the national significance of the Fort Pitt Block House was recognized when it was included as a contributing property in the Forks of the Ohio National Historic Landmark designation. The block house is the oldest extant building in western Pennsylvania and is still owned and administered by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

John P. Wood is the manager of the Historic Preservation Incentives Division in the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office.