Old Fort Western
Library of Congress
On the eastern bank of the Kennebec River in Augusta is the country’s oldest surviving wooden fort. Built in 1754 as a fortified fur trading post, Fort Western was owned by the Howard family and operated as a store by 1775 when Benedict Arnold and his expeditionary force stopped there for supplies on their way to invade Quebec.
While the store operation didn’t survive the Embargo Act of 1807, the Howard family lived there until the 1850s, when the old garrison was split up into eight tenement apartments housing workers from nearby mills.
When the city of Augusta took the property by eminent domain in 1919, Howard family descendants, the Gannetts – future owners of some of Maine’s most influential media outlets – regained ownership, spearheaded its preservation, and gifted it back to the city. It reopened as a museum on July 4, 1922.
Today, the fort is a National Historic Landmark and is operated by the city as a living history museum demonstrating aspects of 18th-century life.
