- This program is part of WQED'S Pittsburgh History Series.

[Singing: One Two, One Two Three Whoop!...]

Yes.

For the next half hour, we're gonna celebrate some local history all around Pittsburgh.

Great people have built houses here, visited here, and some Pittsburghers have traveled widely.

And even this band has a connection to local history.

We think all this may make you feel Lucky To Live In Pittsburgh.

This program made possible by contributions from all the generous members of WQED.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's say you head south out of Pittsburgh.

You're essentially going up the Monongahela River toward West Virginia.

But if you get to Point Marion, you've gone too far.

Just north of Point Marion, on the East Bank of the Mon, out in the country, you can drive into a national park that contains an old house called Friendship Hill, a national historic site.

- It is part of the National Park Service because of its historic role, a place, the home of Albert Gallatin.

Albert Gallatin served as Secretary of the Treasury.

He was also a noted public figure in many things later in his life.

He lived for 88 years and 55 years of public service.

So although he never did anything famous here -- other than living here -- this is the vehicle in which we help to tell his story.

And it's an important American story.

- That's Brian Reedy.

He's the Supervisory Park Ranger there at Friendship Hill and at Fort Necessity National Battlefield, both of which are managed by the National Park Service.

He knows a lot about Albert Gallatin.

- Gallatin himself was an immigrant coming to America in the 1780s.

This is where the land was available.

It was cheap.

And this is where he settled along the banks of the Monongahela River to make his fortune.

So from here, he would begin his home in 1789.

- A lot of people around Pittsburgh may know the name Albert Gallatin because of Albert Gallatin High School near Uniontown and the whole school district near there.

But he's often considered the youngest of America's Founding Fathers.

- Most certainly, yes, he carries on the good work begun by those Founding Fathers.

He was kind of a protege of Thomas Jefferson and served in Jefferson and Madison's cabinets.

So yes, very much considered a Founding Father.

- Near the house, here's a statue of him as a surveyor, but he played many roles in local, state and national politics, even early on helping to settle Western Pennsylvania's Whiskey Rebellion.

- Gallatin is unique in the fact that he was a voice of moderation.

He understood the grievance that existed, but he was also willing work with the government to come to an amiable conclusion.

Depending on which newspapers you read at the time, he was either a hero or he was a villain, so... - So, this guy from Geneva, Switzerland, works locally here for a while, even founding a small town nearby that he called New Geneva.

- New Geneva would actually be a town where there would be a sawmill, a gristmill.

There'd be a glassworks.

But the first glass produced in Western Pennsylvania was by Mr.

Gallatin.

- You know, we learned about that glassworks back in 2014 when we visited the old Mount Pleasant Glass Museum for a program called A History of Pittsburgh in 17 objects.

- This is a milk pan, which is hand-blown and made about 1800 to 1810 by Albert Gallatin's Glass Factory in Fayette County.

That factory was known as New Geneva.

So this is a New Geneva milk pan.

It's a rare survivor.

Unfortunately it has a condition issue, but you can see the wonderful pontil mark made on the bottom of the milk pan where the glass blower's pipe was separated.

- A handsome old piece of New Geneva.

- We also had a gun factory there.

So it is a thriving little community that existed there in the late 18th and early 19th century.

- Well, the day we visited Friendship Hill, we also met Museum Technician Madeline McCombs, - Special object.

We wanna bring out storage, so it can actually be seen a little bit, is a original Gallatin era musket.

So this was made in 1798 down in New Geneva.

So just a few miles away from the house here.

It was made in 1798 because Gallatin was fortunate.

He got the contract in 1797 when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania asked that production be made for the State Militia.

- And Gallatin was asked to produce 2000 stand of muskets, which included bayonets.

But this is one of the few examples of what we call a Gallatin Musket to survive to our time.

- Well, Gallatin himself survived long enough to get an early photograph taken, a daguerreotype, because he was so famous for his work as Secretary Of The U.S.

Treasury from 1801 till 1814.

He helped figure out how to fund the First National Road, now US Route 40, and the Louisiana Purchase.

- He worked with Mr.

Jefferson with the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.

He would provide the funding for that.

- And there's still a statue of him in Washington, D.C.

- Yeah, there's one in front of the Treasury Building.

And if you look at a $10 bill.

If you closely, even with the statue you see there, is not Alexander Hamilton.

That is Mr.

Gallatin.

That faces the side towards the White House.

- So he also served as U.S.

Minister to France and Minister to the United Kingdom.

So he wasn't here for years at a time.

And the house changed.

- Then you see the joist pockets for the second floor.

There was like a loft.

Timbered framing with a brick infill, and it would've had clapboard siding on the exterior.

Friendship Hill today is, is nearly 35 rooms.

It's, it's a, it's a mansion.

It did not begin that way.

It began as a very simple Federal Style home in 1789, made of brick.

The core of it, the Gallatin part we have, and then there's three additional additions, structures added by later owners.

This was a private home until 1978.

So it's a relatively new National Park Service Site.

And every owner after Gallatin added their flare or addition to the house.

So that's why, as much as we'd like to have an 1820s house, we have kind of a mix of an 18th, 19th, and 20th century home here.

- And this site is just beautiful.

This house is wonderful with the architectural features in it.

And some of the things are original to Gallatin.

Some of the historic furnishings are original to him.

And plus just the site, having all the hiking trails and the beautiful views of the river is wonderful.

A lot of locals come in, walking, using the hiking trails throughout the week in the wintertime.

But we do get more visitation and school groups in the summer and the spring.

- And it doesn't cost anything to come and visit Friendship Hill.

- Completely free.

Yep.

Yeah, please come in, drive, park your car and explore the site.

- When Gallatin in his late twenties built the first parts of Friendship Hill in 1789, this part of Pennsylvania was already called Fayette County, named in 1783 in honor of the young French nobleman, the Marquis de Lafayette, who had come to America during the Revolution and fought under General George Washington.

- And after years, George Washington felt that Lafayette was like his son.

So they served together through the war.

Lafayette was wounded at one time in Brandywine and, but he always went back to France because his wife was there, and he was the person who really was instrumental.

He was able to convince the French King to support the United States with money and with troops.

So if it hadn't been for Lafayette's influence with the French royal family, we would've not had that support and probably would not have been able to win the Revolutionary War.

- That's Janet Sutton.

She and her husband, Ernie Sutton, are dedicated members of the AFL, American Friends of Lafayette.

They know a lot about him.

- He was well known, well beyond his role in the Revolution.

He supported the abolition of slavery, the support of women's rights and education, religious tolerance, the support of other democratic governments worldwide, and was the principal author of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in France in 1789.

- Well, Lafayette had gone back to France, lived an eventful life, and then America began to get ready for its 50th anniversary.

- And James Monroe had the idea to invite Lafayette to return for this anniversary as a way of uniting the people of the United States to remember the Revolution that everybody fought for.

And Lafayette was greeted as "The Guest Of The Nation."

That was his title as he traveled through the 24 states of the United States in 1824 - 25, - As "The Guest Of The Nation," every place that he went, people came out by the thousands.

He went down through Virginia, through South Carolina, then he swung across Mississippi, Alabama, spent a great deal of time in New Orleans... - With the French.

- With the French, came up the Mississippi River and then up the Ohio.

He got off at Wheeling.

Instead of going up to Pittsburgh, he got off at Wheeling, went down the new National Road to visit his old friend, Albert Gallatin.

It was quite a detour.

- And on his trip through this area, through Fayette County, wonder who that's named for, he was greeted in Uniontown by Gallatin, and Lafayette gave a speech, Gallatin gave a big speech, and he says, "You know, Lafayette, you need look like you're tired.

Why don't you come down to my house?

No one comes and visits me here.

So we'll have a quiet time.

We could talk a little bit."

cause they had gotten to know each other when Gallatin served as Minister to France.

Well half of Uniontown followed them down.

And as Gallatin would write, it was, "My house was encumbered by a prodigious crowd."

So throngs of people, they really didn't have much of a time to talk.

But we can state that Lafayette did sleep here - And there's a small marker in the parking lot there at Friendship Hill that commemorates Lafayette's visit to Fayette County.

- Then from there he went to Elizabeth, which at the time was called Elizabeth Town.

With a boat flotilla went up to Braddock's Battlefield.

Then from there he went to the Arsenal at Lawrenceville.

Then two days in Pittsburgh.

- So we can say he also slept in Pittsburgh at a hotel that's not there anymore.

- There is a placard downtown in Pittsburgh celebrating that location.

- Oddly long before this 1825 visit, Pittsburgh had an important place named for Lafayette.

From 1792 till 1814, there was Fort Fayette.

- When Fort Pitt closed, they needed another location.

And that was Fort Fayette, Downtown closer to Ninth Street, which is a non-flood area, and they refer to it as Fort Lafayette.

But the newspaper articles from 1792 specifically mentioned, and they put it in parentheses: "Fort Fayette."

- So Lafayette couldn't visit Fort Fayette cause it was gone.

But it is reported that he did visit Dr.

Felix Brunot, who lived on the first island in the Ohio River that is still called Brunot's Island.

- He did meet Felix, Brunot.

Brunot.

I'll have to check on the exact location in Pittsburgh.

He did see him.

- But there was a book that was published that indicated that Brunot was a foster brother to Lafayette.

And I have never been able to verify that as a fact.

- You know, it's possible... = He may have been... = Brunot may have been a Mason.

And Masons always referred to each other as brothers.

Unfortunately, the records from the Masonic Lodge in Pittsburgh were destroyed in the 1875 fire.

So we don't know if Brunot was a member of the Masons at that time.

cause all the records were destroyed.

But they always refer to each other as brother.

- Well, Lafayette may have visited Brunot's Island, but we know that 12 years earlier in August of 1803, Meriwether Lewis and his crew stopped there on the very first day of what would become the Lewis and Clark Expedition, funded by the U.S.

Treasury under Albert Gallatin.

Now, Meriwether Lewis had been in Pittsburgh for about three months at that point, waiting for a ship to be built.

And in 2003 here at WQED, we made a program called Things We've Made that included a piece on the boat that Meriwether Lewis had come to Western Pennsylvania to get.

We met Bill Boucher in Elizabeth, PA, where they claimed they built the boat, - The boat-building here, like the boat=building in Brownsville, and the boat=building in Pittsburgh, was part of a major industry at the time, here, you know, in the West.

- This is where you came to get your boat.

This is where you embarked from.

- Well, here on land, at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center, David Halaas is Director of the Museum Division.

- As best we can tell, the earliest map that shows a a boatyard is produced in 1804.

It shows clearly a, a huge boatyard, pretty close to a place called Sooks Run, which is today about the Mon and the Liberty Bridge.

- Well, first they built flatboats and flatboats were essentially a raft with four sides, then came along the keelboat and that was a boat that could go up and down river.

How it got up river was via a sail or people with poles pushing it.

Then the ocean-going schooners were built here - In the year 2003, a group of national reenactors came to Elizabeth to celebrate the Bicentennial of one of the most famous boats ever built in western Pennsylvania: the keelboat for what would become the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Bill and his brother Barry Boucher convinced them to come here.

- Here in Elizabeth, we've always held the tradition that the Lewis and Clark Expedition boats were built here.

- We, we've always saw the importance of this link with John Walker and Lewis and Clark and early boat building.

In a way we, it would promote this town and it's a beautiful little town.

- Meanwhile, David Halaas and his colleagues at the History Center say that Lewis's letters give us the real scoop on the boat that was probably built in Pittsburgh - In 1803, we know that there is a boat builder that built the keelboat for the Lewis and Clark expedition.

And this guy happened to be a drunk.

- Well, Meriwether Lewis came to Elizabeth in 1803 to pick up a boat that my character John Walker built for him.

- And the tradition is in Elizabeth that he built the keelboat.

But we know John Walker wasn't a drunk.

- I don't know, I think maybe that, maybe a foreman might have been the drunken boat builder.

- The reenactors are led by Scott Mandrell, who portrays Meriwether Lewis and the beautiful recreated keelboat built in St.

Charles, Missouri left Elizabeth on August 31st, 2003.

Unlike the original, this replica also has a motor.

- Really the greatest amount of information we have with regard to what the boat physically looked like is based upon good scholarship and primarily the drawings that Clark had made over the winter of 1803-04.

- By the time these reenactors got their boat to Pittsburgh, the History Center had hired another replica of the Lewis and Clark keelboat.

And so we had two.

- They're fighting for the boat-building lead of the 18th century and the 19th century.

It's the pride of boat-building.

- Well after a stop at Brunot's Island in 1803, the original boat went on to meet William Clark and go up the Missouri River to explore the Louisiana Purchase and look for a possible route to the Pacific Ocean.

You may often see that the Expedition included a dog, a Newfoundland, or Newfie, a big dog who became a beloved part of the three-year journey.

The dog's name was Seaman, and he's mentioned in the journals of both Lewis and Clark.

Seaman loved water, hunted, protected the explorers, and impressed many of the Native Americans who encountered the Expedition.

They made it to the Pacific Ocean.

His exploits have been documented and occasionally imagined and embellished in a number of books, many for children, and he's honored with statues in several cities from St.

Louis, Missouri, to Fort Lewis, Washington.

St.

Charles, Missouri, put up 20 statues of the dog in 2019.

But we know too that Meriwether Lewis bought Seaman in Pittsburgh while he was waiting for that keelboat.

He paid a lot: $20, which some say might be about $400 today.

Now there are no statues and few images that link Seaman and Lewis to Pittsburgh.

This one is from Patricia Reeder Eubank's beautiful book titled Seaman's Journal.

But we thought it might be fun to ask AI to create some ways to imagine the scene where Louis buys the dog while waiting for the boat.

Some are good, others have problems like skyscrapers in the distance in 1803 Pittsburgh.

And while no one claims direct lineage from Seaman... - It's a whole bunch of Landseers.

- ...it's good to know there are Pittsburgh people who still love Newfoundlands.

- We are the Newfies of Pittsburgh.

We share all kind of tips, tricks... Every once in a while we'll do get-togethers, so it's nice and a nice beautiful day where we get together in the winter time.

I like being able to see you outside of the hospital, Buddy.

- That's Carissa Rippole.

She's a local veterinary technician who helps organize this group.

She's here with her dog Neville.

- And most people ask me if he's named after Neville Island, but I tell them he is named after Neville Longbottom because newfies have quite the long bottom, don't they?

Yes.

- This is Stormy.

- This day Jessica Curry brought her dog, Stormy.

- Stormy, my girl.

She is, she is the love of my life.

She is the best dog.

She became available through a rescue.

And one day in my store I was talking with a customer who told me about the Pittsburgh Newfie group.

So we immediately jumped on-line and joined the group and I met Carissa, and the rest is history.

That's how we got introduced to the World of Newfie.

And I never wanna leave.

They're the best.

- Yes, this is a wonderful group.

I stumbled across them on Instagram and they graciously welcomed us in and they're just a great group of people.

- That's Ellen Waldo with her Newie.

- This is Tallulah, and she's four years old.

She's my first Newfoundland and she's wonderful.

- Mike Silverman is new to the group, his dog too.

- This is Harry and he is gonna be eight in June, and he's just a wonderful companion.

And he wants to be wherever we are.

- And Roberta Edwards brought her brown newfie.

- This is Mack Truck Murphy.

And he's very much like his name.

He's like a bull in a china shop, and he just likes to bust into everyone, everything, be right near you all the time.

So.

- My father-in-law, rest in peace, had newfies and said, the only dog you should ever get is a newfie.

- So I own a doggy ice cream bar & bakery in Lawrenceville.

And it's so much fun because we have the newfie group come in for ice cream socials, and it was the first time she had a chance to meet a bunch of dogs that looked and acted just like her.

- I find like newfies like the breed.

Every time he runs into another newfie anywhere, they're always like long lost family members or something.

- They very much get along.

They're not aggressive.

They're nanny dogs.

They love the kids.

- Well, this day at Settlers Cabin Dog Park, it was unusual that four of the five newfies were what's called "landseers."

- I've never been with all the landseers.

This is exciting.

A landseer is a black-and-white newfie.

Most people think that newfies are just brown or black, but they also come in black-and-white.

They're stunning to look at and watch -- not that the black ones aren't -- but the landseers probably have my heart the most.

- I actually wanted a landseer.

When I decided I was getting one, I want... I'd look for a landseer.

My next one I'd like to be all black.

They are total love bugs and fluff and joy.

They're, they're, they don't have a mean bone in their body.

- Tallulah is about 130 pounds.

So that's always a popular question.

- They get embarrassed to get their weight.

- I'm 150, and it's actually a little bit small for a male newfie that's like on the small side for the male newfies.

But I'm alright with that.

- Newfies will do whatever you want them to do as long as they wanna do it.

- So a little bit of a problem.

They all know that they're very beautiful and they get very upset when you don't pay attention to them.

So.

- I always love the breed.

I fell in love with a certain super, super=special and dear-to-my-heart newfie, who unfortunately ended up passing away, and it's one of those patients that changes you, totally changes you.

And it made me fall so much more in love with the breed.

They are the silliest dogs.

- They're not submissive, they're passive.

- They are aloof.

They, they just, they're there, - You know, he doesn't beg, he's sort of like a tax collector, you know, he will come up and not beg, but be like, you kind of are compelled to, my wife calls it like the cheese tax, you know, I gotta, All right, here you go.

- He has a bib that says "Nebby Newf."

- They love water.

They are hard to keep out of water.

For sure.

Neville, especially.

- If he goes in the water, it's an hour and a half plus of getting him, you know, dried off, cleaned off, brushed, you know, like, so you have to be motivated yourself.

He, he's fine.

- She does like water.

She's not as water-tolerant as some of the Newfoundlands are.

She likes to do more wading.

- You know, if you don't mind drool and hair and a lot of money for food and taking care of them, it's totally worth it, you know.

- Oh my goodness, she's my everything.

My kids tease me that, that I love the dog more.

- This is how it happens.

You might end up with one.

- Do you want one now?

Have we convinced you?

- So do these newfie lovers know about Lewis and Seaman?

- I have heard of him, and I know a little bit about the story.

It's always interesting.

- Remember that they were also traveling on water, so it makes sense for them to have a nice big dog to be traveling with.

And they are intimidating.

- They're very protective.

And of course they're scary at night because they're so big.

- For being that long ago, it seems crazy.

Today I feel like we could throw them in a big RV and go across the country.

I think it would be a lot of fun with her.

She's a good, good navigator.

When I travel with him, I thank goodness because their bark is very loud, but sometimes they mean nothing by it, but nonetheless it scares things off.

- And we don't have a Seaman statue here.

- No, we don't.

No, we don't.

Do we?

- We should add that.

- Let's take the Doughboy statue down in Lawrenceville on Butler.

We'll put it right there.

That'll be perfect.

See ya!

- Well, Seaman is remembered in many places and many ways.

In 2018, NASA sent a stuffed animal toy to the International Space Station.

- He has his tablet in front of him and tells us where to put all the different cargo bags.

- They named it Seaman Jr.

After the newfie, who has been called The Greatest Traveler Of His Species.

And we might ask, Did Meriwether Lewis have $20 for the dog in Pittsburgh because of money from Albert Gallatin, then at the U.S.

Treasury?

Gallatin had fame and power in lots of ways, including a river and a mountain range in Montana.

Then unexpectedly, we heard about a local band that had a gig in this bar.

- We are at Lincoln Avenue Brewery in Bellevue, and the owners are amazing, the food's good, and the beer's great.

(singing) I'll miss my friends, I'll miss my home... - And the band?

- We're called Gallatin Hall, and we got our name because that is the dorm room at Robert Morris University that I lived in my freshman year.

So the band, it was me and another person, we both lived at Gallatin Hall at RMU our freshman year at college.

(singing) Oh I hope we're leaving soon... There's also one at Harvard.

I don't know if there's a third one out there somewhere, but Robert Morris University in Moon Township and Harvard University both have Gallatin Halls.

(singing) I wandered off to be alone... - That's Tony Ritchie.

Do people ask what Gallatin Hall refers to?

Do they know about Albert Gallatin?

- You know, it's never really like come up much.

I had to look it up when I was living there cause I wasn't sure who... where Gallatin Hall got its name.

And then I, you know, the internet taught me.

(singing: Oh hallelujah...") - The internet and all these great local connections teach us about things like Albert Gallatin and learning local history can make us feel lucky to live here.

- (singing: ...Pick your poison, I chose mine...) - So rich in history and culture, recreational opportunities, this is a great place to live.

- This area of Pennsylvania is home to me, and there is no place like home.

- I've lived here my whole life, and my grandfather, he was born here in 1900 and so we have a lot of ties to Pittsburgh.

- It's a great city.

It's beautiful.

There's so much to do.

- For me, it's a wonderful cultural city to live.

Very affordable.

- I think it's a city of a whole bunch of different cultures too.

- My wife and I have had that conversation about how happy we are that we get to raise our kids in Western PA.

- I love Pittsburgh.

I have lived all over the country.

- We live in a beautiful state.

It's a beautiful area.

- You've got the water.

In 15 minutes you can be completely in the woods and in the country and in another eight minutes, you can be in the heart of the city.

But coming here, it just, I love the forest and the beautiful rolling hills, and there's so much early history here.

- I think we're extremely lucky to live in Pittsburgh, the architecture, the food.

- The people that Pittsburgh attracts also makes me feel very lucky.

- I do think we're really lucky to be here.

- So yes.

You're very lucky to live here.

(Music ends) (Hoots & hollers!

Applause.)

- Thank you!