Charles Morse Stotz | |
---|---|
Born | August 1, 1898 [1] Ingram, Pennsylvania, U.S. [1] |
Died | March 5, 1985 (age 86) [2] Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. [2] |
Spouse | Mildred Shaw [2] |
Children | 3 [2] |
Charles Morse Stotz was an American architect, architectural historian, and preservationist. He is known for his extensive study of the architectural history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. [3] He was one of the architects to practice in the field of preservation. [2] He was credited with arousing "public awareness of the rich and significant history of Western Pennsylvania." [4]
Stotz was born in 1898 in Ingram, Pennsylvania. [1] His father, Edward Stotz, was a noted architect in Pittsburgh. As a 15-year-old, he won 5th place in the Boys' Life national Daniel Boone Contest essay contest, winning $1.00. [5] He was the grandfather of Andrew Stotz.
He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in architecture in 1921 and later completed his master's degree there. [3]
Stotz joined his father's architectural firm in 1923. [3] By 1936, his father left the firm to his sons, Charles and Edward Stotz Jr.; the new firm was called Charles M. and Edward Stotz Jr., Architect and Engineer. [3] He was active in the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Architects, serving as secretary from 1935 to 1936 and president from 1940 to 1941. [3]
As an architectural critic, he felt that post-Civil War American architecture lacked form, or as he said, had "gone to pot", as the result of the influence of the industrial age. [6]
In 1931, Historical Monuments Committee of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Institute of Architects reported on the disrepair of many unrecorded historic buildings in western Pennsylvania. [4] Answering that call, Stotz and fellow architects created Western Pennsylvania Architectural Survey, funded partially by the Buhl Foundation. [4] The effort was similar to the federally funded Historic American Buildings Survey that would be created a few years later. [4] Stotz served as chairman of the group that traveled 6,000 miles to survey an area covering 22,000 square miles over 27 Pennsylvania counties. [4] The finished product, The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania, included photographs, architectural illustrations, precise measurements, and historical context for 542 buildings. [4] A new edition of the book was published in 1966. [4]
He was chairman of the Western Pennsylvania Architectural Survey from 1932 to 1935 and the Western Pennsylvania section of the Historic American Buildings Survey from 1934 to 1937. [2]
Early in his career, he was instrumental in the restoration of Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. [3] He guided the restoration of Fort Ligonier in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. [3] His research on that project led him to be the definitive expert on 18th century forts in North America. [3] In the late 1940s, he planned a restoration of Fort Pitt, but it was cost-prohibitive. [3] He turned to the development of the Fort Pitt Museum at Point State Park. [3] His exhaustive research into the design of 18th century forts took him to review architectural documents in London and Paris and to visit every fort from Nova Scotia to Florida. [7]
He and Alfred James Proctor co-authored the 1958 history of the French and Indian War in Western Pennsylvania, Drums in the Forest, which was the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania's contribution to the celebration of Pittsburgh’s Bicentennial in 1958-59. [3]
In 1963, he left the firm he owned with his brother to start Stotz, McLaughlin, and Hess. [3] He served as a consultant for the restoration of numerous Western Pennsylvania landmarks, including Compass Inn, Drake Well, Hanna's Town, Johnston Tavern, Neill Log House, Stone House, Washington's Mill, and Wilson's Birthplace. [3]
After 1969, he began working on the book Outposts of the War for Empire, published by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania in 1985. More than a mere history, it contained detailed architectural drawings of 18th century frontier forts. [8]
He retired in 1974. [2] He died on March 5, 1985, at his home in Fort Myers, Florida. [9]
His work inspired many preservationists; his architectural drawings provided templates for other historically accurate restorations. [10]
Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed as Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Fort Duquesne was destroyed by the French before its British conquest during the Seven Years' War, known as the French and Indian War on the North American front. The British replaced it, building Fort Pitt between 1759 and 1761. The site of both forts is now occupied by Point State Park, where the outlines of the two forts have been laid in brick.
The history of Pittsburgh began with centuries of Native American civilization in the modern Pittsburgh region, known as Jaödeogë’ in the Seneca language. Eventually, European explorers encountered the strategic confluence where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio, which leads to the Mississippi River. The area became a battleground when France and Great Britain fought for control in the 1750s. When the British were victorious, the French ceded control of territories east of the Mississippi.
John Forbes was a Scottish professional soldier who served in the British Army from 1729 until his death in 1759.
Fort Pitt was a fort built by British forces between 1759 and 1761 during the French and Indian War at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, where the Ohio River is formed in western Pennsylvania. It was near the site of Fort Duquesne, a French colonial fort built in 1754 as tensions increased between Great Britain and France in both Europe and North America. The French destroyed Fort Duquesne in 1758 when they retreated under British attack.
Point State Park is a Pennsylvania state park which is located on 36 acres (150,000 m2) in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River.
Fort Le Bœuf was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek, in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort was part of a line that included Fort Presque Isle, Fort Machault, and Fort Duquesne.
Fort Ligonier is a British fortification from the French and Indian War located in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, United States. The fort served as a staging area for the Forbes Expedition of 1758. During the eight years of its existence as a garrison, Fort Ligonier was never taken by an enemy. It served as a post of passage to the new Fort Pitt, and during Pontiac's War of 1763, was a vital link in the British communication and supply lines. It was attacked twice and besieged by the Native Americans, prior to the decisive victory at Bushy Run in August of that year. The fort was decommissioned from active service in 1766. Today, there is a museum next to the reconstructed fort. Inside the museum there are artifacts from the battle. An individual can take a guided tour of the fort, and on Fort Ligonier Days, the fort's cannons are fired.
John Neville was an American military officer, land speculator, and local official who served in the French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War and the American Revolutionary War. As an early federal tax collector he became a central figure in the Whiskey Rebellion.
Fort Pitt Museum is an indoor/outdoor museum that is administered by the Senator John Heinz History Center in downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers, where the Ohio River is formed. Fort Pitt Museum is surrounded by Point State Park, a Pennsylvania state park named for the geographically and historically significant point that is between the rivers. This piece of land was key to controlling the upper reaches of the Ohio River Valley and western Pennsylvania, before, during and after the French and Indian War as well as the American Revolution.
The David Bradford House is a historic house museum at 175 South Main Street in Washington, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1788, it was the home of David Bradford, a leader of the Whiskey Rebellion. It has both architectural and historic importance, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1983. It is open weekly between April and November, or by appointment.
Charles Emil Peterson is an American preserver. He is known for professionalizing historic preservation in the United States. He is referred to as the "founding father" of the professional advocation of historic preservation, the "godfather of preservation," and an "extraordinary preservationist" who made important contributions to the knowledge of early American building practices, helped create the profession of the preservation architect, and passionately advocated for the retention and restoration of the American built heritage. According to Jacques Dalibard, a professor at McGill University School of Architecture, "with James Marston Fitch, I cannot think of two people who had more influence on historic preservation in North America."
The Log Cabin at the University of Pittsburgh, located near Forbes Avenue, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania adjacent to the school's Cathedral of Learning, serves as a landmark that symbolizes the university's origins on the 18th Century western frontier of the early United States. The current log cabin, estimated to date from the 1820s to 1830s, was reconstructed on the university's campus for its bicentennial celebration in order to represent Pitt's original log structure that served the institution through the school's founding in 1787 to the construction of a brick building sometime in the 1790s. The Log Cabin often appears in images and promotional material, particularly when relating to the history of the university.
Paul Amos Batholomew (1883–1973) was an architect in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. From the beginning of his practice, he received a variety of high-profile commissions for both residential and non-residential structures, mainly in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. His buildings typically had historicist facades, with neoclassical or Italianate ornamentation covering a modern framework. Only in the 1950s, toward the end of his career, he created buildings that were purely modern in design. During the Great Depression, a particularly trying time for architects, he received the commission to design Norvelt, which was a new town created as part of President Roosevelt's New Deal policies.
Fort Gaddis is the oldest known building in Fayette County, Pennsylvania and the second oldest log cabin in Western Pennsylvania. It is located 300 yards (270 m) east of old U.S. Route 119, near the Route 857 intersection in South Union Township, Pennsylvania. Fort Gaddis was built about 1769-74 by Colonel Thomas Gaddis who was in charge of the defense of the region, and his home was probably designated as a site for community meetings and shelter in times of emergency, hence the term "Fort Gaddis," probably a 19th-century appellation. It is a 1 1/2-story, 1-room log structure measuring 26 feet long and 20 feet wide.
The Roberts House is a historic building in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is designated as a historic residential landmark/farmstead by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation. The Greater Canonsburg Heritage Society erected a historical marker near the house, which is the last remaining structure from Jefferson College.
The Neill Log House is a historic log cabin in Schenley Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was built during the second half of the 18th century and has been most commonly attributed to Robert Neill (Neal), with an estimated construction date possibly anywhere from 1765–1795. This estimate is based on architectural evidence as well as the large increase in value of the land during Neill's period of ownership which would indicate he made substantial improvements. However, the earlier date of 1765 claimed in some sources, would associate the building with an earlier landowner, Ambrose Newton. In 2024, a dendrochronology study determined that the beam over the fireplace, believed to be original to the house's construction, was dated to be from 1795, which was the date that Robert Neal sold the cabin to John Reed. It is known by records that Robert Neal purchased the land in 1779 and sold the cabin and land in 1795. Extrapolation of the known dates of Robert Neal's purchase and date the property was sold and the large increase in value during Robert Neal's ownership indicating he made substantial improvements likely mean it may have been built by him between 1779-1794.
Edward Stotz Sr. (1868–1948) was an American architect who was based in the city of Pittsburgh in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He designed numerous buildings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that are now listed as significant by the National Register of Historic Places and the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.
George Champlin Mason Jr. (1849–1924) was an American architect who is considered the first professional architectural preservationist in the United States.
Stotz is a surname. Notable people with the name will include:
Mercer's Fort was a temporary fort built by Colonel Hugh Mercer during the winter of 1758–1759, to secure the "forks of the Ohio," at the confluence of the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River, where Mercer was preparing to build Fort Pitt. At the time it was loosely known as "the fort at Pittsburgh," and when work on Fort Pitt had progressed, it was sometimes referred to as "the first Fort Pitt." Only later did people call it "Mercer's Fort," leading to confusion with Fort Mercer in New Jersey. The fort initially served to defend the site, but as Fort Pitt neared completion, it was used mostly to lodge workers and to store supplies. In mid-1760 it was partially dismantled, with some buildings converted into a hospital.