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File #: 1132-03    Version: 1 Name: Motion expressing the Sense of Council of Allegheny County to support the efforts of the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in seeking a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Save America's Treasures Grant and initiating h
Type: Motion Status: Approved
File created: 5/6/2003 In control: County Council
On agenda: Final action: 5/6/2003
Title: Motion expressing the Sense of Council of Allegheny County to support the efforts of the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in seeking a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Save America's Treasures Grant and initiating historic site marker placement of the John Woods House situated in Hazelwood at 4604 Monongahela Street.
Sponsors: Rich Fitzgerald
Attachments: 1. 1132-03 transmittal.rtf, 2. 1132-03 transmittal to Mayor.rtf, 3. 1132-03.pdf

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Motion expressing the Sense of Council of Allegheny County to  support the efforts of the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in seeking a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Save America's Treasures Grant and initiating historic site marker placement of the John Woods House situated in Hazelwood at 4604 Monongahela Street.

 

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                     WHEREAS, in 1792 a home was built in the community of Hazelwood, now situated within the City of Pittsburgh, by John Woods (1758-1816) who, along with his father Colonel George Woods, laid out the plan for the City of Pittsburgh in 1794.  John Woods, a revolutionary war soldier, later became a pioneering manufacture and pivotal government contractor in the region.  President Washington appointed him Quartermaster for the United States Army in 1792 and he served as such in 1794 during the Whiskey Rebellion and the Battle of Fallen Timbers.  John Woods was also a presidential elector in 1796, state senator in 1797, and was elected to the 14th U.S. Congress in 1815; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the Woods home is only one of three surviving 18th Century structures remaining in Pittsburgh, the other two being the Fort Pitt Blockhouse at the Point and the Neill Log House in Schenley Park.  The Woods home, the only of these structures built of cut stone, is significant as a rare survivor of a late 18th Century architecture; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the Woods home's historic importance to the City and County is well documented.  However, it is also of national historic significance in that during the mid-1800's it was a favorite gathering place for a group known as the Knights of the Square Table whose founding member was "American's Troubadour," Stephen Collins Foster, America's first professional composer; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the historical record indicates that many of Foster's best known songs were first sung or composed at the Woods Home such as Nelly Bly, Oh Susannah!, and Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).  Old Folks at Home was first performed on the Woods' family piano, which is now housed at the Stephen Foster Memorial in Pittsburgh; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the Department of the Interior Appropriations Act provides for Save America's Treasures Grants up to $1 Million in order to preserve our cultural heritage, and is administered by the National Park Service, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.  The grants are awarded through a competitive process.  Grants are available for preservation and/or conservation work on nationally significant historic structures and sites; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh City Council has passed a resolution authorizing the City of Pittsburgh to make application for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Save America's Treasures Grant and to enter into appropriate cooperation agreements with the Urban Redevelopment Authority to secure said grant; and

 

                     WHEREAS, the Pittsburgh City Council has further authorized the City to work in cooperation with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, local community-based and other organizations involved in historic preservation in order to pursue additional state and local funding for the restoration of this site.

 

Now Therefore, it is moved, and it is the Sense of the Council of Allegheny County, that we support the efforts of the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority in seeking a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Save America's Treasures Grant and initiating historic site marker placement of the John Woods House situated in Hazelwood at 4604 Monongahela Street.