Fort Ticonderoga gets state grant to restore historic house

TICONDEROGA, N.Y. – Fort Ticonderoga has been awarded a nearly $2.5 million state grant to restore a historic structure that’s considered one of the nation’s first summer homes.

The non-profit organization that operates the privately run historic site and tourist attraction in the southeastern Adirondacks received the funding from the New York State Council on the Arts and Empire State Development.

Officials say they’ll use the $2.45 million grant for the restoration of The Pavilion, built as a summer home in 1826 by William Ferris Pell, a wealthy New York merchant who bought the fort and the surrounding property six years earlier.

The Pavilion later became one of the first hotels in the Adirondacks.

Plans for the structure include new indoor and outdoor dining facilities, a museum shop, restrooms and event space.