LandscapeOnline.com :: Article : Historic Remnants to be Buried

Home

Article Search

Product Search

Associations/Events

E-Store

Historic Remnants to be Buried

Point State Park, Pittsburgh is at the meeting point of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela rivers.

Above & Below: The entrance to Old Fort Pittsburgh and the fort plaque.

Wall remnants of the fort in Point State Park are due to be graded over to make a level surface for large public gatherings.

Richard Voelker reports in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that a few months shy of old Fort Pitt’s 250th anniversary wall remnants of the fort in Point State Park will be buried under new grading to make way for a large public gathering space. He bemoans the forces that be—the governor for not stopping it, the Riverlife Task Force, the director of the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission and a Boston-area landscape design consultant who he says came to Pittsburgh and ignored the historic park’s 50-year-old management policies, ones developed by Ralph Griswold, a Pittsburgh landscape architect known for site restoration work at Williamsburg, Va.

Voelker writes: … “since the region’s sole claim to fame is currently linked to these same, now-visible artifacts, isn’t it counterproductive to bury them just to provide a safer noshing environment for chubby festival-goers?”

Voelker says the local preservation organizations (the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the History & Landmarks Foundation and The Heinz History Center) were absent from public discussion.

Give us your feedback.

Comments

Name: S, J. McLean	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: What utter stupidity!! This is an historic site NOT a picnic ground. Let the lard bottoms go somewhere else to stuff their faces! Is this not a monument to people who gave their lives for their contry? Shame!!

Name: Paul Barrosse	Wrote in with comment
Comment: I cannot believe that a significant part of Pennsylvania's (and the Nation's) history is set to be plowed under for any reason whatsoever. Why not just build a casino at Gettysburg? Oh, that's right. Some philistines are trying to do that, too.

Name: Howard Wanhoff	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: Group: I feel covering up Historic artifacts is poor judgement on someones part. whats next dismantling buildings in the Park and selling the land to a developer?

Name: Jack Diehl	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: I'm now wondering how long it will take politions to plow under and cover over the WWII Memorial, the Viet Nam War Memorial, and clear the Arizona from the shallow depth of Pearl Harbor, all in the name of moving on. Hmmmm1 I really wonder.

Name: Kay Cynova	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: How very very sad and tragic that this community chooses to destroy history. I guess this is one more reason NOT to visit.

Name: George Chapman	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: What a stupid plan. It flies in the face of everything for which the park was established, the preservation of the history which took place there.

Name: Darroch Greer	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: This is an outrage and an assault on my heritage. Shame on those who would rob us of our history.

Name: Alexander Wright	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: This plan is an outrageous blind stab in the eye of history. The visual presence of the artifacts at Fort Pitt is a substantial inspiration for those festival goers that may deepen ther appreciation for those whose labors and lives have served to create the very place where they now enjoy their freedom to congregate in peace. Do not bury the past, honor it.

Name: John McCauley	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: The destruction of this historic place needs to be revisited immediately. Our nations history along with that of Fort Pitt, the city of Pittsburgh, the State of Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary War and other important historical facts associated with this site need to be preserved for future generations. There are other spaces for public gatherings. Good design should have taken all of this under consideration. My vote is to go back to the drawing board. Don't destroy am important part of history. John K. McCauley, Jr. Registered Landscape Architect-State of Oregon Penn State Graduate-Ag Sciences and Landscape Architecture Native of Pennsylvania

Name: CARL KUHNS	Wrote in with general comment
Comment: Absolutely appalling that such a destructive project would even be considered. Without the knowlege of the sacrifices of our forefathers and the ability to study history, we are doomed to repeat past failures. I have not lived in Pittsburgh for over 30 years, but I do have childhood memories of visiting Fort Pitt's Blockhouse and Point State Park. Perhaps if the stupid idiot Governor of Pennsylvania were from Pgh instead of Philly, this would not be an issue.

February 4, 2012, 2:28 am