Dec. 3—ROUSES POINT — The new owners of historic Fort Montgomery saw one thing when they acquired it recently: potential.
A potential winery. A potential marina. A potential fort restoration. A potential wedding venue.
Several project ideas remain on the table for the property, which Canadian brothers Martin Benoit, 55, and Benoit Benoit, 46, bought for $750,000 on Sept. 7, after it sat on the market for over a decade.
“We want our projects there to benefit the population locally,” Martin said.
“It’s a prime spot. You have people who live in Upstate New York and Vermont who can have access; Canadians also travel toward that area. So we think there’s a lot of potential there.”
Though Martin now lives in Phoenix, he and his brother Benoit, grew up in the St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu area, not far from Montreal, where Benoit currently lives: both are orthopedic surgeons.
Martin said they were regular fishers on Lake Champlain with their parents during his childhood, and he remembers the fort vividly.
When Benoit called him about potentially buying the Fort Montgomery property, which is, in total, 300 acres, he was immediately interested.
“What we knew of the fort was definitely from the water, so obviously it has a major appeal — a major part of the reason why we decided to put in an offer on that piece of land,” Martin said.
“So we definitely want to use the presence of the fort as a major monument … to develop whatever we’re going to do for the land.”
‘FORT BLUNDER’
Most locals might associate Fort Montgomery with its predecessor “Fort Blunder,” as it was dubbed.
Fort Blunder was in the middle of being constructed in 1816, as a way to deter the British in Canada from invading, when it was realized a surveying error caused them to accidentally build it on Canadian land.
After the border issues were resolved in 1844, construction of the iconic Fort Montgomery, which sits on an 8-acre island right below the Canadian border on Lake Champlain in Rouses Point, began shortly after and was completed in the 1870s.
The fort was in the U.S. government’s hands up until the late 1920s when they held an auction for it. Since then, it has been under private ownership.
RESTORATION?
The previous, long-time owners, the Podd family, had made several attempts to sell the fort over the years but were all largely unsuccessful.
According to an Atlas Obscura article, they had even put it up for sale on eBay in 2006 in an attempt to get rid of it.
Both Martin and Benoit, under their ownership, now look to revitalize the land and potentially save the fort from complete ruin.
To many who have seen Fort Montgomery from the water, or who have visited it on land, it’s obvious the many years of neglect and abandonment have taken its toll on the historic site and it’s in need of some serious, immediate help as several walls are falling apart, and many of the walls that are still standing have been vandalized with graffiti.
“It’s in bad shape. I went there last month, maybe three weeks ago, to walk on the land and it’s not in good shape,” Martin said.
“Without the fort, I’m not even sure we would have bought the land. The presence of that fort on the island is something very unique, so yeah, definitely it’s our intent to preserve it at the very least and restore it, because right now, it’s, I would not say dangerous, but I would definitely not have any events in the fort.”
WEDDING VENUE
Though it’s unclear to what degree the fort will be restored yet, Brian Dominic, a sales agent for Four Seasons Sotheby’s International Realty, who was instrumental in brokering the Fort Montgomery deal, said a potential wedding venue has been discussed for when it is completed.
“That revitalization of that fort, and that area, is going to be huge for Rouses Point, because since Pfizer shut down and they destroyed all the buildings, it hasn’t been good around there and then COVID on top of that has just devastated that poor village,” Dominic said.
“They are going to, vaguely what I know, salvage what they can and make it (the fort) safe … and use it for an event space, so if somebody wants to, I guess the number one (event) would probably be getting married. Somebody could rent the space and have a spectacular venue for that on the water.”
WINERY/VINEYARD
“That’s primarily what the fort would be used for, at first anyways, unless we decide to use the island as a potential project for a marina, which is also a possibility for the future,” Martin said about using the fort as a wedding venue.
“But first, we’ll start with the winery, and we’d like to have some events there: weddings, wine tastings, different types of events.”
The brothers’ planned winery, which will most likely be the core business of the property, will take up about 25 acres of the 300 acres available when completed, Martin said.
Construction on both the winery and tasting room is set to begin in 2023, with help from their manager Alain Plamondon, who has been involved in a vineyard startup called Domaine Roy in Oregon.
The goal is to start planting vines on the land in 2024.
“It’s a small part of it, and there’s plenty more that we’re going to be looking at doing there. We’ll definitely be exploring a bunch of ideas and listening to people locally and regionally if there are projects that become interesting,” Martin said. “We definitely will be all ears.”
LOCAL IMPACT
Martin added that he believes their acquisition of Fort Montgomery will bring many benefits to Rouses Point and the surrounding areas.
“We’re going to make sure we work with people locally. That’s important to us,” he said.
“We hope it has a huge impact.”
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