Snow has a tendency to arrive early and stay late up on the shores of Lake Champlain, leading museum co-founders Stephen and Sarah Pell to augment the Pavilion’s many fireplaces with radiators during the first restoration in 1909. A maintenance record from 1937 shows that they even considered modifying the Pavilion for proper central heating, […]

The former Pell family’s summer estate home at Fort Ticonderoga is undergoing major restorations Fort Ticonderoga has been awarded $100,000 under the 2019 Adirondack Park Community Smart Growth Grant Program. The money awarded will help support the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Pavilion, a National Historic Landmark house located adjacent to The King’s Garden […]

Family heirlooms in the Pavilion were not limited to fine china, furniture, and silver. Nearly one hundred framed paintings, prints, and works of embroidery were displayed throughout the building including family portraits and landscapes memorializing Ticonderoga and Lake Champlain. Some of these works of fine art will be displayed in the Pavilion after its restoration. […]

Honoring military service is an enduring legacy at Fort Ticonderoga, extending beyond the conflicts that directly involve our corner of Lake Champlain. Visitors to the museum at various points in the 20th century may have noticed a small flag, called a fanion, from World War I, and objects from the various USS Ticonderogas that have […]

Restoring a building the size of the Pavilion is a complex project whether the work is being done today or in the early 1900s. When museum co-founders Stephen and Sarah Pell began the first restoration, they intended it to be completed in time for the Champlain Tercentenary Celebration in July of 1909. The building was […]

Getting ready for winter is a time-honored tradition in the Adirondacks. Campsites are closed, summer homes sealed up, and Fort Ticonderoga enters Winter Quarters. As with Fort Ticonderoga, work on the Pavilion restoration is undergoing its own seasonal transformation so that our work can continue year-round. Converting the Pavilion from a seasonal residence to supporting […]

An intimate setting for family and friends, the dining room in the Pavilion took shape during the building’s tenure as a hotel. When Stephen and Sarah Pell chose to restore the Pavilion as their summer residence in 1909, they chose to retain the dining room even while they reversed many of the other changes made […]

Fort Ticonderoga co-founder Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell was passionate about preserving the legacy of the past to inform present and future generations. Recognized as the driving force behind Fort Ticonderoga’s restoration, Sarah applied the same principles and ideas to ensure that the history of the objects in the collection of fine, decorative, and folk art […]