Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1797.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Fort Ann’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fort Ann is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns, #670 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fort Ann’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fort Ann’s 1.9 sits below most of its state (24% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1757.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.3 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Fort Ann’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fort Ann is located on the historic route linking the French and English colonies.
The area was the site of several forts built by various nations, from a small French fort called "The Pickets" near the southern end of Lake Champlain in 1689, in the northwestern area of the town, to a series of forts (including "Fort Schuyler" and "Queen's Fort") closer to where the village of Fort Ann stands today. The first of these was likely the Stone Fort, built by Englishman Fitz John Winthrop in 1692.
The village of Fort Ann has a depot on the Delaware & Hudson Railroad; the Champlain Canal passes through it, and a daily stage connects it with Glens Falls. The postoffice was established in 1800, and George Clark was the first postmaster. The business carried on is mostly commercial, but there is a knitting and woolen mill conducted by Edgar Wall.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
cation in the village of Middle Granville and was a clerk in a store there for some time. He then went to Boston and resided in that city until 1878, then was stationed at Saratoga in the railroad business until 1SS1, when be came to Fort Ann to accept the position of station agent on the D. & H. Railroad, which position he has held since that year.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Fort Ann, 1757 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1895Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewA view of a saw mill and block house upon Fort Anne Creek ...which on Gen. Burgoyne's army advancing was set fire to by…, 1789
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fort Ann’s page.
In 1757, according to Wikidata. Fort Ann’s post office opened in 1797, and the census of 1820 counted 2,911 people here.
How does Fort Ann rank for history?
Fort Ann is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns, #670 of 758 in New York. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Fort Ann?
One place: the Old Stone House Library, The (listed 2013).
How old are the homes in Fort Ann?
16% of Fort Ann’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1981.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (10), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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