We are not starting from zero.

What was once a forgotten dumping ground at Van Rensselaer Point is now 28 acres of free public parkland. It is approved by the NYS DEC for public use, with an award-winning living shoreline and a new bridge to the island. Volunteers led that work. Four of seven phases are complete, with $13.2 million already invested in the Point.

Phase Five: the Interpretive Center (about $3 million)

The first doors to open, and the heart of the mission. Galleries hold the artifacts from the digs. Costumed interpreters tell the multicultural story of the fort — French, Haudenosaunee, British, and American — around a great stone hearth.

What comes next

Phase Six is the Great Hall and the Portal (about $4 million): the concourse and the immersive Time Machine experience theatre that carries visitors back to the shoreline of 1755. Phase Seven is the historic Fort itself (about $12 million). These later phases will be largely grant-funded. The big dollars come from state, federal, and foundation grants, and local gifts help unlock them.

Your gift builds what comes next.

Recognition

Gifts of $5,000 or more join the founding friends honored together on the dedication plaques in the Great Hall: Friend of the Fort $5,000 · Patron $10,000 · Builder $25,000 · Cornerstone $50,000 · Founder's Circle $100,000+. A gift of $10,000 or more can dedicate a place in the park. A post in the Cedar Post Wall is $5,000.

Prefer a check, or a pledge over several years?

Make checks payable to Fort La Présentation Association and mail them to P.O. Box 1749, Ogdensburg, NY 13669, with "Capital Development Fund" on the memo line. For leadership gifts, naming, and multi-year pledges, write to President@Fort1749.org.

Any gift, to any fund, makes you a member for the year.

Concept renderings show a schematic vision. Phase costs are order-of-magnitude estimates, pending engineering and board approval. Fort La Présentation Association is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit; gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.

Build the Park

Phase Five: the Interpretive Center — the first doors to open at Fort de La PrésentationProtecting our shared heritage through preservation and public education.