Friendship Hill, the house of Albert Gallatin, the 4th Secretary of the Treasury. Located in Fayetty County, PA

Friendship Hill National Historic Site is about an hour and a half from Pittsburgh but it is about 30 minutes from Brownsville, PA or Summit Inn. Nice place to go to either start your day or top off you day but it is about a half day trip or less. Unless, you do all the hikes that they have which are over 8 miles of trails.

The park has picnic areas with this great view. Especially, if you have a large family and friends group with those that want to explore and those that would rather just hang out at the picnic place.

The park has a lot of hiking trails along fields, ponds, on a hill over looking the river, and in the woods. The trails are well laid and most of them are in loops so it would be hard to get lost.

Once parked in the parking lot down from the house, it is a little walk up and you can’t see the house but you see this very great statue on the way. I love it because it is so detailed. At his feet, are the tools of his trade.

As you walk up and turn around the corner, the house comes into view out of the middle of no where. It called a small country home. I hate to see what a house is town looks like.

The house is filled with items from the family. This is the Tara of the North. It looks big but then when see the back it is even larger. The rooms are so large.

The house is made up of seven different sections. The original area was built in 1789. At least two sections, where completed by later owners.

Down from the house is Albert Gallatin’s second wife’s, Sarah Allegre, grave. His first wife died only a few months after they married but he and Sarah had a nice life together with six children.

The path is behind the house and a nice little walk down to the woods. The wood are nice place to walk.

Sarah’s grave is by a little pond and a nice little wooded area that is called Sarah’s woods. You can see the house from the grave but it looks a bit small. The woods are very wonderful with all the fall leaves on the ground.

If you walk past the pond, then there is a little trail to Sarah’s woods. The place is just beautiful.

Back at the house, they have a gazebo which has been moved back a bit but the view is incredible The gazebo over looks the Monongahela River.

Some of the trails in this area follow the Monongahela River. But imagine the view before they built up the industrial items across the way.

Brief History

In 1761, Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva to a wealthly family that had many members in positions of influence in the magistracy and the military. He was orphaned at age 9 but taken care of by family and well educated.

Unfortunately for Geneva, his education got him thinking against the traditionalism and he got the democratic spirit of the Untied States.

In 1780, during the American Revolution, Albert came to American from Geneva which is now Switzerland with letters of recommendations. One of those letters was from Benjamin Franklin.

Gallatin would purchase 400 acres of land in Fayette County, PA. He had build Friendship Hill and was hoping to get settlers from his home country to come to the area but his business plan failed to do so.

In 1788, Gallatin was elected to discuss possible revision to the U.S. Constitution. This started his politics career which included a seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, a U.S. Congressman, Secretary of the Treasury under President Jefferson and Madison, served as ambassador to France and England, and was even looked at as a vice president running mate.

During his time, he did a lot for the United States but one of the most important and most over looked was when he was expelled out of the Senate.

In 1793, Gallatin won the Senate seat and he was a vocal opponent of Alexander Hamilton’s economic program. Hamilton’s friends used the fact that he was not a citizen for nine years prior to the election to remove him from office in open sessions. Prior to this, sessions had been closed to the public.

He was also a major player in getting Thomas Jefferson elected to office. The three major members of the Jefferson administration were Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin. Gallatin was frequently left to operated the federal government as Jefferson and Madison would leave Washington for the summer.

In 1801, Gallatin became the Secretary of the Treasury with a national debt of $83 million which in 2020 would be about $1.6 billion. He was Secretary of the Treasury for a total of thirteen years and brought down the debt to $45.2 million.

Although this would be impressive in itself, the debt also included a major expansion of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of $15 million which lands would become 13 different states in the future, funding for the National Road, and funding the beginning of the War of 1812.

This man was one of the most impressive men in U.S. History to be mostly forgotten. He was part of the founding of the Second Bank of the United States, pushed Congress to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition, and co founded the American Ethnological Society. He is considered the “Father of American ethnology”, due to championing Native Americans issues and his studies in Native American languages.

He was a man very much pulling strings in the back of many of are most loved leaders in the country during his time.