Charles Morse Stotz

Originally published to commemorate the bicentennial of Pittsburgh's founding, Drums in the Forest is reissued to mark the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War. It comprises two parts: the first, by Alfred Proctor James, provides the historical background leading up to the capture of Fort Duquesne by the British; the second, by Charles Morse Stotz, is a description of the five forts built at the forks of the Ohio between 1754 and 1815.

Outposts of the War for Empire is being reissued in hardcover format, reproducing the original 1985 edition, to mark the 250th anniversary of the War for Empire, perhaps better known as the French and Indian War. Much has been written on the events of the fifteen years from 1749 to 1764, a conflict that decided the ownership of most of the North American continent. Some historians have addressed the politics of this great conflict; others have focused on the daily lives of the people on the frontier and the ravages they endured in war. In Outposts of the War for Empire, Charles Stotz brings his specialized knowledge as an architect and architectural historian to tell and show what colonial forts looked like, where they stood, who built them and why, what materials were used in building them, and how they varied in design to fit different military purposes.Stotz describes twenty-two forts built by the French, the English, and the colonists in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania –from tiny outposts built by the Ohio Company at Wills Creek on the North Branch of the Potomac to the fortresses that guarded the Ohio at Pittsburgh, first the French Fort Duquesne and later the English Fort Pitt. Using mathematically accurate perspective drawings, he shows exactly how the most important of the forts were constructed and documents their twentieth-century reconstruction. Through narrative and illustration, Charles Morse Stotz creates a unique and important perspective on the War for Empire, a world war that had profound and lasting influence on the frontier region of western Pennsylvania.

A new edition of this long unavailable classic reproduces photographic prints made from original negatives and features an extensive analytical introduction by the noted architectural historian Dell Upton.Before the 1936 publication of The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania, the architectual heritage of a region prominent in the history of early America had been almost totally neglected. Based on a four-year survey conducted by the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Istitute of Architects, Charles Morse Stotz’s book provides the definitive description and analysis of structures ranging from log houses to colonial and Georgian structures to examples of the pre-Civil War Gothic revival. The volume defines the local architectural idiom as an expression of the frontier and early industrial societies that played such an important part in the history of nineteenth century America.This oversized volume of 416 black-and-white photographs, 81 measured drawings and an extensive text presents a splendid array of early dwellings, barns, and other outbuildings, churches, arsenals, banks, inns, commercial buildings, tollhouses, mills, and even tombstones. Time has proved this work to be the definitive record of an architectural heritage that was fast disappearing with the economic boom of World War II and the postwar years.The Early Architecture of Western Pennsylvania is also a work of precision, beauty, and integrity. The drawings ignore alterations made after 960 and shoe the buildings in their original condition, giving special attention to details such as window sashes, shutters, cornices, and roofs. The floor plan of each structure is included, and line drawings display the profiles of moldings and ornamentation. Signature stones and hardware convey the quality of the early craftsmen’s work. In all cases, stone joining has been faithfully drawn, joint for joint, to record the charm of old wall patterns.This new edition makes a landmark book available to a new generation of readers – one especially aware of the importance of architectural preservation and guarding the history of the Western Pennsylvania region.