Fort Ticonderoga has announced the completion of the $9 million restoration of the 1826 National Historic Landmark, the Pavilion.
The Pavilion was built as a summer home in 1826 by William Ferris Pell. He and his family occupied it through the 1830s. By 1840 the house had begun to be used as a hotel, its primary function through 1900. As a hotel, the house welcomed travelers passing through Ticonderoga while traveling by steamboat on Lake George and Lake Champlain.
The hotel is known to have accommodated such guests as Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln; the prominent French & Indian War historian Francis Parkman; and prolific Adirondack photographer Seneca Ray Stoddard. When William Ferris Pell’s great-grandson, Stephen H.P. and his wife Sarah G.T. Pell began the restoration of Fort Ticonderoga in 1909, they simultaneously undertook the restoration of the Pavilion and used the house as a summer residence for many years. After Stephen Pell’s death in 1950 his son John occupied the house until 1987.
The Pavilion restoration and adaptive re-use project was partially funded with a $2,445,000 grant from the New York State Council for the Arts, $500,000 from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and $100,000 from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.
Additionally, a grant of $70,544 from I LOVE NY supported the expanded visitor experience in the Pavilion node, including the Carillon Boat and the dock infrastructure. The remainder of the Pavilion project was made possible by generous private donor and foundation support, as well as a historic tax credit partnership with Arrow Corporation.
Fort Ticonderoga also announced it has raised nearly $20 million towards the $70 million capital campaign to further enhance the visitor experience. The next phase includes the acquisition of the single most important private collection of 18th-century militaria and the construction of a new state-of-the-art museum to house and display the growing collections of historical importance. The museum will serve as the premier North American military history museum, spanning colonization through the new American nation’s creation.
In 2016, Fort Ticonderoga’s annual economic impact was estimated at $12 million, but by 2030 it is conservatively estimated to contribute $77 million to the local economy with our planned additions.
Other economic impacts through 2030 include:
• $549 million in total economic output
• $56 million tax revenue benefit
• 678 direct and indirect jobs created
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America.
For more information, visit Fort Ticonderoga’s website.
Photo of Pavilion grand opening courtesy Fort Ticonderoga.
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