Point Great Lawn Open

The Great Lawn at Point State Park has been reopened. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has completed the second phase of its multi-year renovation of the park. Work on the Great Lawn included re-grading and reseeding the lawn, adding LED lights to the outline of the original Fort Duquesne and restoration of the medallion and paving stones marking the location of the fort. Along with the renovation of the Great Lawn, Phase II included work in the Woodlands areas on both sides of the grass. That work included removing hazardous and dead trees, raising the planting beds, resetting the field stone edge, adding irrigation and planting more than 54,000 native plants. The DCNR says those plantings are representative of the types of plants that would have been found at the point in the mid-1700s. Visitors will have to stay out of those plantings until they have time to become better established. Phase III will launch next summer with work set for the wharf areas and walkways along the rivers. Point State Park is where the French Fort Duquesne was built in 1754. The French abandoned the fort in November 1758 when the British arrived to claim the Point for Great Britain.