Notes:Fort Street

To do

• Sources that say Neville Craig was born in the Block House?
• For John Fanning Watson's description, cite Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, vol. 2, 131. Google Books 0A6RDCLr29AC, USAWAAAAYAAJ.
• "By 1880, the Point District was the most crowded section of the city." — Cite A. A. Lambing, History of the Catholic Church, 138. Historic Pittsburgh 00aga8651m
• Samuel Storey quote: Cite Storey, To the Golden Land, 96. Google Books 6aH2pM7l100C
• "(City councils had already passed an ordinance that located, but did not actually open, O'Hara Avenue.)" — Find this ordinance.
• "For the next five years, no progress was made . . . though it has been moved at least five times." — Cite the DAR's book Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt?
• "Soon afterward, Fort Street and Point Alley were also vacated." — Find ordinances. Note Fort Pitt Society book Fort Duquesne and Fort Pitt (Source:Fort-duquesne), cited by Weaver, The Fort Pitt Block House, p. 85: "An ordinance to close Fort Street passed the City Councils some years ago, but it was never enforced. As soon as that ordinance is carried into effect. . ."
• "This meant that the only access to the Block House would be the 20-foot-wide frontage on Penn Avenue." — Explain more about why this would be a hardship: having to demolish rental property, build new caretaker's lodge, etc. Focus on the effects of the street changes. Caretaker's lodge relevant for Point State Park negotiations.
• "In February 1902, the DAR began to seek support for the establishment of a 'Point Park' around the Block House, an idea that had been suggested in various forms since 1836." — Can we find any of these? Editorial from 1886 quoted in Newspapers.com 146638331.
  • A Pleasant Peregrination Through the Prettiest Parts of Pennsylvania: Performed by Peregrine Prolix, 1836 (Internet Archive pleasantperegrin00prol), pp. 106–107: "The Pittsburghers have committed an error in not rescuing from the service of Mammon, a triangle of thirty or forty acres at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela, and devoting it to the purposes of recreation. It is an unparalleled position for a park in which to ride or walk or sit. Bounded on the right by the clear and rapid Allegheny rushing from New York, and on the left by the deep and slow Monongahela flowing majestically from Virginia, having in front the beginning of the great Ohio, bearing on its broad bosom the traffic of an empire, it is a spot worthy of being rescued from the ceaseless din of the steam engine, and the lurid flames and dingy smoke of the coal furnace. But alas! the sacra fames auri is rapidly covering this area with private edifices; and in a few short years it is probable, that the antiquary will be unable to discover a vestige of those celebrated military works, with which French and British ambition, in by-gone ages, had crowned this important and interesting point."
• "At first the DAR was successful, winning the suit in June. But Schenley, Nicola, Herron, and the City of Pittsburgh appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. In January 1903, that court found that the DAR had waived its right to petition when it signed the Block House deed, and the lower court's ruling was overturned." — Cite these rulings. Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania v. Mary E. Schenley, Frank F. Nicola, John W. Herron, and the City of Pittsburgh, Court of Common Pleas No. 2 of Allegheny County, No. 513, April Term, 1902; appealed to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Nov. 1902.
• Ordinance no. 34 (1876), "An ordinance changing the name of First street, formerly Point street, to Fort street." Source:Municipal-record-1876, p. 208.