09/23/2026
Old Tyme Tuesday~ September 22nd | From the New England Sketch Book Glass Negative Collection.
I utterly love this early 1900s composition of 2 kids hanging out on the 1819 24 pound cannons at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven MA. I grew up with regular visits to Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston Harbor & have always been fascinated, and enamored by, the early coastal forts & defenses of New England harbors.
Fort Phoenix is positioned over Buzzards Bay where it was constructed in 1775 to guard the Bay and New Bedford harbor. Upon completion, outfitted with cannons captured from the British by John Paul Jones no less 😉.
During the Revolutionary War in September 1778, British troops launched a massive raid, destroying the fort’s barracks and defenses. When the colonists rapidly rebuilt the fortification, they renamed it “Fort Phoenix”—symbolizing the mythical bird rising from its own ashes.
After a storied 100 years of history - military decommissioned the fort in 1876 and the area immediately became a popular beach destination in the 1880s as trolleys brought regular visitors from New Bedford.
In 1925, Cara Broughton, daughter of local Standard Oil industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, purchased the fort & surrounding land for a measly $5,000 in 1925 (about 96K in todays dollars) and generously gifted it to the town of Fairhaven where it continues to be a wonderful, active community park.
