Kousssinoc Chapter NSDAR members participate in a wide variety of historic preservation projects as it is crucial to saving our history for future generations.
On June 17, 1898, Koussinoc Chapter NSDAR placed a bronze tablet on an old wooden building on the bank of the Kennebec River, known as Fort Western. Fort Western was erected in 1754 by the Plymouth Company as a trading post.
In 1905, the Koussinoc Chapter NSDAR placed a bronze tablet in Lithgow Library, Augusta, bearing the names of the Revolutionary soldiers who lived, died or were buried in Augusta.
In 1912, the Governor’s Foot Guards of New Haven, Connecticut, dedicated the tablet and boulder within the limits of Fort Western in memory of Arnold’s Expedition.
In 1941, the State of Maine flag which the Maine Daughters of the American Revolution presented to the USS “Maine” on January 28, 1905, and later returned to the State to be stored at the State House, was returned to Koussinoc Chapter NSDAR and placed in their room at Fort Western. The ship was built and so named after the destruction of the first SS “Maine” sunk in Havana Harbor in 1898. This banner was given to the battleship “Maine” when that ship came into Portland Harbor from Mrs. Kendall, State Regent.
The chapter room at Fort Western was once called Captain Howard’s parlor. Now known as The Officer’s Card Room, it was given to the chapter for its use in 1921 by William H Gannett, in memory of his late wife, Sadie Hill Gannett, chapter regent 1903-1904. In 1980, the room was rededicated and a plaque hung. In October 1988, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in the blockhouse at Fort Western. This plaque described the gift of the fort to the city in 1922 by Mr. Gannett, and describes the unique relationship between the fort and NSDAR since 1922.
In 2004, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Fort Western, the plaque was rededicated. On September 6, 2015, the restored plaque was hung on the new palisade fence.