Point State Park
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| Point State Park, Pennsylvania, USA | |
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| IUCN Category V (Protected Landscape/Seascape) | |
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| Location: | Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Nearest city: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates: | |
| Area: | 36 acres (0.15 km²) |
| Established: | 1974 |
| Governing body: | Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources |
Point State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 36 acres (0.15 km²) in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The park is located at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River.
The park, built on land condemned from businesses in the 1950s, opened in 1974, when construction was completed on its iconic fountain. Pittsburgh settled on the current design after rejecting an alternative plan for a Point Park Civic Center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The park also includes the outlines and remains of two of the oldest structures in Pittsburgh, Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne. The Fort Pitt Museum, housed in the Monongahela Bastion of Fort Pitt, commemorates the French and Indian War (1754 - 1763), in which the area soon to become Pittsburgh was a major battlefield.
Presently, the park provides recreational space for residents in downtown Pittsburgh and also acts as the site for major cultural events in the city, including the Three Rivers Arts Festival and Three Rivers Regatta. The park, a registered National Historic Landmark, is operated by the Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks.
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[edit] The Fountain
The fountain in Point State Park, which sprays water up to 150 feet (46 m) in the air at the head of the Ohio River, draws upon water from the "Wisconsin Glacial Flow", an underground river that passes beneath the park.[1]
[edit] Future
Michael DeBerardinis, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, announced a $25 million dollar plan to renovate Point State Park on October 11, 2006. The plans call for improving the green spaces within the park, expanding recreational opportunites, preserving historical installations, and updating outdated amenities. The project is scheduled to be completed within four years, with the majority of the work to be completed in time for Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary celebration in 2008.
Sections of the park have fallen into disuse since it was established in 1974. The homeless have used the trenches surrounding the foundations of the remains of Fort Pitt as a temporary shelter for years. Graffiti on the structures of the park has become a major problem. Sections of the park are littered with fence posts, cut logs, plastic drums, and rolled up snow drift fencing. The walkways have become cracked and are beginning to fall apart. The goal of the restoration project is to re-establish the park as a recreational destination.
Plans for improving the park include installing new pumps and pipes in the fountain, establishing a seating area around the fountain and a wading area for children, restoring the river walk with steps that lead into the river, building kiosks for information and concessions, renovating the rest rooms, renovating the water taxi landings and surrounding docks, and installing wireless internet access hubs.
These plans are not being put into place without some controversy. On January 25, 2007, thirteen members of two different local labor unions were arrested for blocking access by contractors to the work sites at the remnants of Fort Pitt. The labor union was protesting the use of four non-labor workers by the contractor responsible for completing the work at Point State Park. [2]
[edit] History
The confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, creating the Ohio River, has greatly impacted the history of Point State Park. It was at the center of river travel, trade, and wars throughout the pioneer history of western Pennsylvania. During the mid-1700s the armies of France and the Great Britain carved pathes through the wilderness to control the point and thereby control trade on the Three Rivers. The French built Fort Duquesne in 1754 on foundations of Fort Prince George which had been built by the colonial forces of Virginia.
The French held Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War, and it became one of the focal points for that war because of its strategic river location in disputed territory. The French held the fort successfully early in the war, turning back the expedition led by General Edward Braddock. A smaller attack by James Grant in September 1758 was repulsed with heavy losses. Two months later, on November 25, the Forbes Expedition under General John Forbes captured the site after the French destroyed Fort Duquesne the day before. The British rebuilt a much larger fort on the site, and named it Fort Pitt.
The Forbes Expedition was successful where the Braddock expedition had failed because of the Treaty of Easton, in which area American Indians agreed to abandon their alliance with the French. American Indians, primarily Delawares and Shawnee, made this agreement with the understanding that the British military would leave the area after the war. The Indians wanted a trading post on the spot, but they did not want a British army garrison. The British, however, built a new fort on the site and named it Fort Pitt, after William Pitt the Elder.
As a result, in 1763 local Delawares and Shawnees took part in Pontiac's Rebellion, an effort to drive the British out of the region. The Indians' siege of Fort Pitt began on June 22, 1763, but the fort was too strong to be taken by force. In negotiations during the siege, the commander of Fort Pitt gave two Delaware emissaries blankets that had been exposed to smallpox, in hopes of infecting the surrounding Indians and ending the siege. The attempt was probably unsuccessful, and on August 1, 1763, most of the Indians broke off the siege in order to intercept an approaching force under Colonel Henry Bouquet, resulting in the Battle of Bushy Run. Bouquet fought off the attack and relieved Fort Pitt on August 20.
After Pontiac's War, Fort Pitt was no longer necessary to the British Crown, and was abandoned to the locals in 1772. At that time, the Pittsburgh area was claimed by both Virginia and Pennsylvania, and a power struggle for the region commenced. Virginians took control of Fort Pitt, and for a brief while in the 1770s it was called Fort Dunmore, in honour of Virginia's Governor Lord Dunmore. The fort served as a staging ground in Dunmore's War of 1774.
During the American Revolutionary War, Fort Pitt served as a headquarters for the western theatre of the war.
A small brick building called the Blockhouse—actually an outbuilding known as a redoubt—remains in Point State Park, the only intact remnant of Fort Pitt. It was erected in 1764, and is believed to be the oldest building, not only in Pittsburgh, but in western Pennsylvania. Used for many years as a house, the blockhouse was purchased and has been preserved for many years by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who make it open to the public.
[edit] Nearby state parks
The following state parks are within 30 miles (48 km) of Point State Park:
- Allegheny Islands State Park (Allegheny County)
- Hillman State Park (Washington County)
- Raccoon Creek State Park (Beaver County)
[edit] References
- Alberts, Robert C. (1980). The Shaping of the Point: Pittsburgh's Renaissance Park. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-3422-1.
- Don Hopey. "State will provide $25 million for Point State Park", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 12, 2006.
- Allison M. Heinrichs. "13 arrested at Point State Park protest", Pittsburgh Tribune Review, January 26, 2007.
- Point State Park, USGS Pittsburgh West (PA) Topo Map. TopoZone. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- Point State Park. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
- Find a Park Pittsburgh and its Countryside. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
