Friendship Hill National Historic Site

NPS photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Point Marion, Pennsylvania

Significance:

Home of the American secretary of treasury, whose efforts made financing the War of 1812 possible.

Designation:

National Historic Site

OPEN TO PUBLIC:

No

Friendship Hill, a structure dating to the 1790s, was the home of treasury secretary Albert Gallatin. As treasurer under president Thomas Jefferson and president James Madison, Gallatin presided over the dismantling of the Bank of the United States, leaving America financially unprepared to engage in large scale warfare in 1812. 

In order to fund the War of 1812, Gallatin reinstituted politically unpopular taxes that had been imposed by rival Federalists in the 1790s. In 1814, he headed the American delegation to Ghent, where he helped negotiate a successful peace settlement with Great Britain. 

After the war, in 1816, Gallatin assisted in chartering the Second Bank of the United States to meet the nation's postwar financial needs.