Fort Ticonderoga

Though Fort Ticonderoga was famous as the “Gibraltar of North America,” the stone star fort provided the staging grounds for the one of the first American victories in the Revolution, and an important staging ground for the Saratoga campaign. After the fighting began to move to the Southern Theater, the strategic importance of the fort rapidly declined, and so it saw a great deal of neglect from its British occupiers. This neglect continued well after the war, as ownership of the fort passed from the State of New York to private hands, with the fort falling into ruin. But in 1909, the Pell family, which had owned the fort and surrounding land since 1820, began to invest in its restoration, reopening the fort as a museum and adding the so-called “King’s Garden” to the grounds. The museum, a founding member of the American Alliance of Museums, remains open today and hosts frequent special exhibition and special living history programs.