Heinz History Center museum on the site of the British 1758 fort at the headwaters of the Ohio River, where the 1758 Battle of Grant's Hill is interpreted
601 Commonwealth Place, Building B, Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Museum admission ticketed; Point State Park grounds are free
Access
Wheelchair OK
Modern museum building with accessible entrances and elevators; paved paths throughout Point State Park.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1969 · Site of 1758 Battle of Grant's Hill (French and Indian War) · Site of British Fort Pitt (1759–1792) · Senator John Heinz History Center affiliate · Smithsonian Affiliate
The point of land at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers — the 'Forks of the Ohio' — was strategically critical to control of the Ohio Valley. The French built Fort Duquesne on the point in 1754. On September 14, 1758, a British force under Major James Grant of the 77th Highlanders advanced on the fort and was ambushed and routed on the rising ground above; the engagement is known as the Battle of Grant's Hill and resulted in the deaths of approximately 300 British and provincial troops. Grant himself was captured. The French abandoned and burned Fort Duquesne in November 1758 under pressure from the larger Forbes Expedition.
The British constructed the larger Fort Pitt on the same site between 1759 and 1761. Fort Pitt was the British center of operations for Pontiac's War (1763–1766) and for the early western theater of the American Revolution. Most of the fort was demolished after 1792, with only the 1764 Fort Pitt Block House surviving.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania designated the site Point State Park in 1945. Construction of the park and the Fort Pitt Museum, located on the foundations of the original Monongahela bastion, was completed in 1969. The museum has been operated by the Senator John Heinz History Center, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, since 2010.
Grant's Hill itself, originally a 70-foot rise immediately north of the fort, was leveled to street grade in 1912 as part of downtown Pittsburgh's regrading.
Sources
Pittsburgh paranormal accounts collected on the city's regional ghost-tour circuit and by local writers describe two recurring patterns at the Fort Pitt Museum. Security staff have reported seeing figures on the museum's surveillance monitors — most often described as a man in colonial-era dress in the eighteenth-century gallery — that are not visible when the corresponding area is physically checked. Small artifacts have occasionally been found relocated overnight, though the museum has not endorsed the reports. CBS Pittsburgh's 'Best Pittsburgh Haunts' feature documents the security-monitor and disappearing-objects pattern, and the Paranormal in Pennsylvania podcast devoted a 'Haunting Histories' episode to the museum's reports.
Local tradition references a re-enactor's death at the site in the early 1970s, but no contemporary newspaper account has been definitively identified in the public record; the detail should be considered folklore rather than documented history until corroborated.
Point State Park itself, as the site of the 1758 Battle of Grant's Hill and the larger Forbes Expedition campaign, has accumulated separate accounts: visitors to the surviving Fort Pitt Block House occasionally report the smell of black-powder smoke, and joggers on the lower park paths near the river have described seeing groups of period-dressed figures that disappear when approached.
Media Appearances
Two floors of exhibits on the French and Indian War, the British construction of Fort Pitt, the American Revolution in the west, and the founding of Pittsburgh. Includes period artifacts, life-size figures, and a reconstruction of the original Monongahela bastion.
Walk the 36-acre Point State Park at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, including the surviving Fort Pitt Block House (1764) and the river fountain.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Pittsburgh, PA
Point State Park covers 36 acres at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers in downtown Pittsburgh. The site held a succession of 18th-century forts: a 1754 Virginia outpost, the French Fort Duquesne, and the British Fort Pitt. George Washington identified the site for fortification in 1753, and it was the focal point of the western theater of the French and Indian War. The state park was authorized in 1945 and dedicated in 1974.
Mars, PA
The Mars Railroad Station was built in 1897 by the Pittsburgh and Western Railroad and is the only surviving station from that line. It closed in the early 1980s, was relocated 150 yards south in August 1999, and reopened as a museum operated by the Mars Area History and Landmarks Society. During the 2000 relocation, workers discovered a mummified cat sealed inside the original foundation.
Pittsburgh, PA
The Senator John Heinz History Center occupies a massive warehouse in Pittsburgh's Strip District that once belonged to the Chautauqua Lake Ice Company. On February 9, 1898, an ammonia-fueled explosion and fire destroyed the building, killing 11 workers. The structure was eventually rebuilt and renovated, and now serves as the largest history museum in Pennsylvania.