Fort Phoenix is an American Revolutionary War-era fort located at the entrance to the Fairhaven-New Bedford harbor, south of U.S. 6 in Fort Phoenix Park in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.
On September 5–6, 1778, Fort Phoenix was destroyed by the British when they were raiding the harbor. When it was rebuilt, it was given the name "Fort Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from its owns ashes.
The British tried to seize Fort Phoenix in 1814, but they were scared off when they mistook the horn of a postman's bicycle as a sounding of charge.
The fort was founded in 1775 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Famous quotes containing the words fort and/or phoenix:
“Across Parker Avenue from the fort is the Site of the Old Gallows, where 83 men “stood on nothin’, a-lookin’ up a rope.” The platform had a trap wide enought to “accommodate” 12 men, but half that number was the highest ever reached. On two occasions six miscreants were executed. There were several groups of five, some quartets and trios.”
—Administration in the State of Arka, U.S. public relief program. Arkansas: A Guide to the State (The WPA Guide to Arkansas)
“And there’s a score of duchesses, surpassing womankind,
Or who have found a painter to make them so for pay
And smooth out stain and blemish with the elegance of his mind:
I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)