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Log Cabin (University of Pittsburgh)
Encyclopedia
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, located near Forbes Avenue
Forbes Avenue
Forbes Avenue is one of the longest streets in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It has a length of about ten miles and is named for General John Forbes , whose expedition recaptured Fort Duquesne and who renamed the place Pittsburgh in 1758.The westernmost terminus of Forbes Avenue lies at...
, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
adjacent to the school's Cathedral of Learning
Cathedral of Learning
The Cathedral of Learning, a Pittsburgh landmark listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is the centerpiece of the University of Pittsburgh's main campus in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States...
, serves as a landmark that symbolizes the university's origins on the 18th Century western frontier of the early United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. 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.
Modern history
The idea of placing a log cabin, which had come to symbolize the university's origins, on Pitt's campus in order to commemorate the university's approaching bicentennial in 1987, came from then Chancellor Wesley PosvarWesley Posvar
Wesley Wentz Posvar was the fifteenth Chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh.-Biography:Posvar was born September 14, 1925 in Topeka, Kansas. He attended West Point, graduated first in his class in 1946, and after graduation he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, which later became the U.S. Air...
and University Trustee Charles Fagan III. This particular cabin originated from Yatesboro
Yatesboro, Pennsylvania
Yatesboro is an unincorporated village located in Cowanshannock Township, Pennsylvania....
/Rural Valley
Rural Valley, Pennsylvania
Rural Valley is a borough in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 922 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Rural Valley is located at ....
area of Pennsylvania located about 50 miles from Pittsburgh. Estimated to date from the 1820s to 1830s, the log house had been sided with clapboards
Clapboard (architecture)
Clapboard, also known as bevel siding or lap siding or weather-board , is a board used typically for exterior horizontal siding that has one edge thicker than the other and where the board above laps over the one below...
and used as a residence. It was purchased at an auction for $1,000 by Fagan, who donated it to the university in honor of his wife Ann Ebbert Fagan, who graduated from the university's School of Arts and Sciences
University of Pittsburgh School of Arts and Sciences
The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences is one of the 17 schools and colleges of University of Pittsburgh located in Pittsburgh, PA...
in 1962. The cabin was disassembled and transported to Pittsburgh where its reconstruction was begun on September 10, 1986. Brad Moody of Heritage Restorations of Ligonier, Pennsylvania
Ligonier, Pennsylvania
Ligonier is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,695 at the 2000 census. Ligonier was settled in the 1760s. The borough is well known for nearby Idlewild Park, one of the oldest amusement parks in the country, and nearby Seven Springs Mountain Resort...
was the contractor for the disassembly and reassembly. The building's portch and chimney are new conjectural additions based on Heritage Restorations' expertise with similar buildings. Additionally, some original logs were replaced with the company's stockpiles, and a new wood shingle roof was installed, along with newly fabricated doors and windows. For a time after its completion, through at least part of the 1990s, the log cabin served as a visitors' information center. It is currently used by the Cathedral of Learning grounds maintenance staff to store salt for winter deicing.
Symbolism, history, and legend
Tradition of the university, then the Pittsburgh Academy in the 1780s, and scattered evidence suggests that the school began life in a log cabin. A lack of concrete information of Pitt's early days can be blamed on the fires of 1845 and 1849 that wiped out most of Downtown Pittsburgh, where the school was then located. For this reason, very few records about Pitt's early days exist, and definitive information on classes being held in a log cabin is scarce. Records do exist of a gathering of individuals discussing the need for a new school, which was to become Pittsburgh Academy, occurring in a log house near the PointPoint State Park
Point State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River....
(this meeting was known to take place but the records from the meeting were lost). According to Pitt historian Agnes Lynch Starrett, there is "plenty of evidence that classes were held in a log building, even before the charter was granted". Most structures in 1787 Pittsburgh, then the frontier of America, were wooden structures or log cabins. Further, it appears other schools in the area, such as Washington and Jefferson College whose first building was known to be John McMillan's Log School
John McMillan's Log School
John McMillan's Log School is a landmark log building in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania that was the site of John McMillan's frontier latin school during the 1780s. It is a symbol of Canonsburg and Canonsburg's educational tradition...
, also operated out of similar structures. In the 1790s, a two-story, three-room, brick building was erected for Pitt Academy on the south side of Third Street and Cherry Alley. It is also known, that the school owned both its brick building and a log house next to it that served as the home to its principal. It seems in the very least that it can be inferred that Pitt Academy had an early log building in its possession. Even if the history of the school starting in a log cabin is factually unclear, it has been a tradition told within the university for over 100 years and at least represents the era of Pitt's founding, if not the actual 1st meeting in a log cabin to discuss the institution's creation. Since then, the image of a log cabin has become an iconic representation of the university's origins and has appeared on numerous publications and promotional items celebrating the university's sesquicentennial, bicentennial, and other anniversaries.