History
The building was constructed around 1765 and it is uncertain if the first occupant of the Neal Log House was a man named Ambrose Newton, a soldier at Fort Pitt, who laid claim to 262 acres in what is now Schenley Park, or if it was Robert Neal for whom the house is named. It is known as the "Neill (Neal) Log House" after the family who lived in it from about 1765/1770 to 1795 - Robert Neal, his wife Elizabeth (Irwin) Neal, their son John and their five daughters, Nancy; Mary, Elizabeth, Jean and Martha. There was also possibly a second son. Robert was the son of John and Margaret Neal who emigrated from Ulster Ireland. On June 8, 1738, John and Margaret Neal purchased 200 acres of land in Paxtang Township, Lancaster County Pennsylvania (now Dauphin County) near Harrisburg Pennsylvania, for “fifteen pounds and ten shillings for each hundred acres” which they called “Neal’s Garden”. They had 8 children, William, Margaret, Robert, John, James, Jean, Eleanor, and Agnes (Nancy). William and John Neal were surveyors and farmers who purchased land and developed homesteads in Indiana County Pennsylvania and Westmoreland County Pennsylvania, respectively. Robert purchased the land in Pittsburgh in what is now Schenley Park developing a wagon trade route along the Nemacolin Indian Trail (Braddock's Road) from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, with his father’s homestead outside of Harrisburg PA as one of the resting points.
Records show that Robert Neal bought the house and tract for 34 pounds, 8 shillings. Robert Neal called his tract of land "Highlands." The land was patented to him by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Tax records show he owned the land, two horses, and three cows. The cabin is likely built on the site because water was available. The property is about four miles from Fort Pitt, where the family could go for protection. The house appears on a 1790 road survey. It is still on its original site. In 1795, Robert Neal sold the land for 365 pounds, 5 shillings to John Reed, who added an adjoining tract. The profit probably reflects the development of the land by Robert Neal. Reed sold the tract to Brintnal Robins. He, in turn, sold 374 acres to James O'Hara. Col.[1] James O'Hara, left the property to his granddaughter Mary Schenley, who donated the land to the city in 1889.[1]
The land around the Neal house was made into a picnic grove, tennis courts, and not long afterward, a golf course. An interesting side note is that O'Hara rented the property to the Burchfield family, who owned a lot of property in Squirrel Hill South. Adam Burchfield was born in the Neal house. His grandson, William, married Elizabeth Stewart, Robert Neal's great-great-granddaughter. The Burchfields were executives of Horne's department store for several decades. Robert Neal and his wife Elizabeth (Irwin) Neal, his son John and his wife Jennie (Hamilton) Neal, and several of his daughters and granddaughters are buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, US.
Restoration
In the late 1930s, the house was designated as one of the "most interesting log structures in western Pennsylvania" by Charles M. Stotz when he conducted a survey of historic buildings in this part of the state. When Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation was founded in 1964, one of its early goals was to restore and furnish the Neal house and open it to the public. It was carefully and authentically restored in 1969 by Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation. The Neal Log House is made of oak logs. The wood was disassembled, and the usable wood kept. All new logs and beams were cut by hand to match the originals. The present roof, floors, and beams are new. The lintel over the fireplace is the original log. The fieldstone foundation, fireplace, and chimney are original. The chimney and fireplace have never been dismantled. The house has a single room with a loft above. According to a 1966 report, the house was well built. The corners were square. The logs were held together by V notches and wooden pegs, the ends of the roof rafters were beveled, and the floor was made of half-logs called puncheons. Nails were not used. Wood pegs simulating the originals hold the rafters together. They are visible in the loft and in the door and window frames. The house originally had a ladder to the loft, which was replaced by stairs in 1969. The chinking between the logs and covering the fireplaces is mortar applied in 1990 to seal out weather. The original chinking would have been clay mixed with hair or some other strengthening material on a backing of stones and twigs. The house is interesting because it has two fireplaces. The larger fireplace was used for cooking, and an unusual smaller fireplace to its left was probably used for heating at night to save firewood. The house is otherwise a typical frontier Pennsylvania log house. The Department of Archaeology of Carnegie Institute conducted an archaeological dig of the site that turned up 19,000 artifacts, now in the collection of Carnegie Museum.[citation needed]
The house currently sits preserved in Schenley Park with a fence around it (though it is open to the public periodically).
The log house is also featured on the cover of A Guidebook To Historic Western Pennsylvania by Helene Smith and George Swetnam.[6]
Connection with the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The historic connection between the Neal Log House and Lewis and Clark’s Expedition is believed to have taken place in May of 1803, when Meriwether Lewis traveled to Pittsburgh to launch the keelboat he had constructed up-river from Pittsburgh. Several months later, he began his trip down the Ohio River from the Point, the confluence of the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh and early Gateway to the West. From here, Lewis traveled to the Falls of the Ohio at Clarksville, Indiana, across from Louisville, Kentucky. Soon after, he met up with William Clark. It is said that “When they shook hands in Clarksville, the Lewis and Clark Expedition began.” More crew members were added and they traveled to winter quarters outside of St. Louis, in final preparation to journey west. This was all after earlier preparation on the rivers of Pittsburgh, where their keelboat was first constructed and launched. May of 1803 was Lewis’ second trip to Pittsburgh, having traveled earlier as a young Virginian volunteer to put-down the Whiskey Rebellion. On both trips, he journeyed from Maryland to Pittsburgh on the ancient Nemacolin Indian Trail, later called Braddock’s Road. There is also evidence that Lewis later traveled with two wagons, by the Neal Log House, on his last 4 miles overland to the Point. Early travelers on the Nemacolin Trail through what is now Schenley Park would water their horses at Snyder’s Springs, source of the historic Catahecassa Fountain at the Neal Log House.[7]
The Neal Log House is historically important due to the fact that it is one of only a few eighteenth-century structures remaining in Pittsburgh and the oldest existing residential structure in Pittsburgh. Interestingly, of these, three others are in or near Squirrel Hill. They include the Martin log cabin on Overlook Drive in Schenley Park (1769-1774), also built by Ambrose Newton; the Woods house at 4604 Monongahela Avenue in Hazelwood (1790); and the house that was once a stagecoach stop at 423 Kaercher Street in Greenfield (1800).
