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.
body
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 ...
Click here for full text