History & local legend
Friendship Hill near Point Marion was the home of Albert Gallatin, who later served as U.S. treasury secretary. His first wife, Sophia Allegre, married him in May 1789 and died that October, only months after they settled there.
Sophia's burial place is itself a historical puzzle. Gallatin wrote that he buried her overlooking the river, but the Monongahela cannot be seen from the walled plot identified as her grave. One tradition holds that later construction uncovered her remains and that they were moved. The National Park Service explains that the exact resting place remains uncertain.
Ghost stories add another layer to the house. In a 2004 interview, ranger Brian Reedy described volunteers hearing footsteps in rooms closed to visitors and reports of a young woman's face at an upstairs window. These later encounters are often associated with the estate's losses, but they do not resolve the question of where Sophia was buried.
