Sutlers Row, history takes center stage at Fort Ligonier Days

Oct. 15—Fort Ligonier Days is all about the history.

Sure there's plenty of food, drink, crafts and live music for the thousands of visitors who flocked to Ligonier this weekend for the three-day festival that has marked the start of the fall season for more than six decades.

But, it's the old fort and its past that marks the centerpiece of the event.

The three-day festival commemorates the Oct. 12, 1758 battle for Fort Ligonier as the English army held off an attack by French soldiers who were encamped at Fort Duquesne at what is now Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh.

"The fort was built and then the town grew up around it. If there was no fort back then, there would not be a town here," said Lauren Koker, director of development for Fort Ligonier.

Koker was one of the hundreds of reenactors who participated in showing visitors to Fort Ligonier how life was lived more than two centuries ago.

And organizers brought more of that time period to life this year with the creation of a Sutlers Row at the front yard of the fort. Sutlers served as merchants who provided the fort with the wares it needed for daily life. Under tents, a handful of small shops, including a bakery, tin smith, wood worker, weaver and potterer peddled products on the lawn in front of the fort, as may have occurred in the 18th century.

"The bakery has been here for several years and has done quite well. We thought more people would be interested in this and thought, why not expand this," Koker said. "Some people aren't into the history but we think it is important."

Justin Cherry, owner of Half Crown Bakehouse, said bringing vintage cuisine to Fort Ligonier is part of the event's charm.

When he's not serving Fort Ligonier Days customers 18th century-style bread baked in a clay oven and slathered in salt pork butter, he serves as the resident baker at George Washington's historic home at Mt. Vernon in Virginia. Cherry has brought his bakery to Ligonier for the past several years when he served as the lone merchant at the fort.

Sutlers Row grew to five shops this year and that's just fine with Cherry.

"I think it's just the heritage and tradition and it is important to connect everything together," Cherry said.

Matt Stein's shop offered a variety of wood-carved products, boxes and toys authentic to the times. Stein, like all vendors on Sutlers Row, dressed in period attire. He spent Sunday hammering out a surveyor's chain that might have been used by fort residents as a measuring device.

"I'm here to sell but I enjoy doing demonstrations," Stein said. "We've got to make this as authentic as possible."

Sharon Phillips and her husband, Roy, peddled period-specific candle holders, lanterns and mugs. All are items that were likely sold to fort occupants back before the Revolutionary War.

"This is nice and historic. We like to tell people about these items, how we make them and what they are for," Phillips said.

And that's the idea behind Sutlers Row, Koker said.

"This has done well. We have five sutlers here this year. We'll have more next year," Koker said.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .